Chechen Civilians Flee Russian Bombs

Russian warplanes knocked television and radio off the air in breakaway Chechnya on Saturday, sending tens of thousands of civilians fleeing toward neighboring regions.

It was the third day of punishing airstrikes on Grozny, the Chechen capital. Russia’s air campaign had been focused on bombing suspected rebel bases, but now it is targeting economic installations and civilian communications facilities as well.

Russian forces bombed the TV station in Grozny on Friday and early Saturday and damaged the equipment beyond repair, Russian media reported. Chechen officials said seven people were killed and 24 wounded in the overnight air raid, the Interfax news agency reported.

Islamic rebels seeking to establish an independent Islamic state in southern Russia entered Dagestan in August but were forced to retreat into Chechnya. They have been linked to recent terrorist bombings in Moscow and other Russian cities.

Saturday’s airstrikes also knocked out a radio tower in the village of Goyskoye, 12 miles southwest of Grozny, Chechen officials said. Interfax said Chechnya’s cellular communications station was also destroyed, but that report could not be confirmed.

The raids took out Grozny’s oil refinery Friday, and officials told Interfax that refinery operations were at a standstill Saturday.

Tens of thousands of civilians have tried to flee Chechnya as Russia has shifted its air attacks from outlying villages to Grozny. An estimated 100,000 Chechens crowded the border with the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia on Saturday.

Russia’s air force commander, Col. Gen. Anatoly M. Kornukov, told reporters Saturday that airstrikes that began in early August had killed more than 2,000 militants and destroyed about 250 rebel sites in Chechnya and Dagestan.

Chechnya fought a two-year war for independence from Russia that ended in a stalemate in 1996, but Moscow still considers the republic part of Russia.