Drive Against Chechen City Is Said to Mount

The Russian military redoubled its drive to conquer rebels in Chechnya on Wednesday, with troops fighting street by street in the republic’s capital, Grozny, while helicopter gunships and cannons relentlessly pounded southern mountains, officers said.

Lt. Gen. Gennady Troshev, Russia’s deputy chief commander in Chechnya, announced Wednesday that the war was expected to be over by Feb. 26, although “nobody is giving the forces any firm deadlines for ending the operation,” the Interfax news agency reported. He did not explain how he arrived at that date.

Federal forces pushed toward the center of Grozny from several directions, trying to squeeze rebel fighters into an ever-tightening circle, the military said.

It was impossible to verify the army’s claims of progress.

In Moscow, the Russian bureau of Interpol issued an international arrest warrant for Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev and 79 other rebels, saying they may try to flee to neighboring countries, Interfax reported.

Meanwhile, a pro-Moscow Chechen leader said that a group of prominent Chechen rebel commanders was in Moscow for talks with government officials, but the government played down the talks, saying it was not clear whom the visiting Chechens represented.