Russia Steps Up Attacks Against Dagestani Rebels

Russia launched new airstrikes and sent reinforcements Friday to bolster an offensive against Islamic militants in Dagestan. The acting prime minister said the campaign might be extended into neighboring Chechnya.

The threat to strike Chechnya, which fought a war of secession against Russia from 1994-96, was the strongest indication yet that the uprising in Dagestan--a Russian republic in the Caucasus region--could lead to a wider war.

Acting Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said a new operation was underway to oust the rebels from villages in Dagestan’s Botlikh region, near the Chechen border, that they seized last week. He didn’t give any specifics.

Many of the rebels in Dagestan infiltrated from inside Chechnya, which remains part of Russia but has slipped out of Moscow’s control since the war.

The rebels are seeking an independent Islamic republic.

The Interior Ministry said Russian paratroops had captured a strategic hill on the outskirts of the rebel-controlled village of Ansalta on Friday morning. Troops also used helicopter gunships and artillery to attack Tando, another village where rebels are based.

Chechen soldiers guarding the republic’s border with a section of Russia to the northwest claimed that a column of Russian armored vehicles crossed into Chechnya early Friday to provoke an attack, the Interfax news agency said.

No skirmishes were reported, and the vehicles left an hour after entering Chechnya, Interfax said.

Russia’s Interior Ministry denied that the incursion took place.

On Friday, five airplanes arrived in Makhachkala, the Dagestani capital, carrying soldiers, weapons and medical equipment. A group of 50 elite troops also arrived in the region.

The Interior Ministry acknowledged that the situation remained tense because the rebels--well-versed in guerrilla warfare and familiar with the mountainous terrain--were hindering Russian attempts to encircle them.

Since the uprising began, Russia has primarily conducted an air campaign against the rebels, flying more than 200 sorties in the first six days, the Defense Ministry said.

In that time, the Interior Ministry says, at least 150 rebels have been killed and 300 wounded. The rebels, however, said only five of their fighters had been killed and 15 wounded, Interfax said.