Chechen Rebels Losing Ground in South, Russia Says

Chechen rebels and Russian troops clashed Friday in Chechnya’s southern mountains, but Russian advances are shrinking the area where the guerrillas can mount hit-and-run attacks, a top general said.

Col. Gen. Valery L. Manilov, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, said Moscow now controls most of the strategically important areas in Chechnya.

But up to 7,000 militants are still resisting federal forces in the southern mountains, which are a rebel stronghold, he said. The military reported several clashes with rebels in southern towns. In the village of Stariye Atagi, troops fired shells and rockets at mountains to the south.

Manilov repeated Russian claims that the 5-month-old war was nearing an end. He said Russia’s strategy of using air and artillery strikes against distant rebel bases in the mountains was working.

He said the rebels have lost more than 11,000 of their own since fighting began between Chechen-based militants and Russian troops. Russia reportedly has suffered 1,221 troop fatalities including 45 killed over the past week. But both sides have exaggerated each other’s casualties, and Russian troops in Chechnya have questioned the losses reported by their commanders.

In Russia on Friday, prosecutors charged Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov with rebellion, the Interfax news agency reported.

“Maskhadov organized an armed rebellion on the territory of the Chechen Republic and took a direct part in it as commander in chief of the armed forces,” Yuri Biryukov of the prosecutor general’s office told the agency.