From staff and wire reports

November 22, 1999
Web posted at: 4:11 p.m. EST (2111 GMT)

In this story: Avoiding mistakes of earlier war Rebels resist in strategic Urus-Martan Refugees going into, out of Chechnya Forced evictions from refugee camps? RELATED STORIES, SITES

GROZNY, Russia -- Russian troops have almost completely encircled Grozny, where more than 5,000 rebels have barricaded themselves, bracing for a major offensive, Russian military officials said.

Meanwhile, fighting bitter winds and snow, hundreds of refugees returned from the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia, while a larger number of Chechens fled in the opposite direction across the mountainous border.

VIDEO CNN's Steve Harrigan reports on the people displaced by fighting in Chechnya. (Nov.22) Real 28K 80K Windows Media 28K 80K     MESSAGE BOARD Russia's future     AUDIO Former U.S. National Security Adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, shares his view on Chechnya 177K/16 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

Military reports said federal troops had moved to within a few kilometers of the Chechen capital.

Grozny has been a focus of Russia's military campaign in Chechnya since it began in September. Russian aircraft have been shelling the city and suspected rebel bases throughout the republic for weeks.

Warplanes and helicopter gunships flew 82 missions over Chechnya over the past 24 hours despite poor weather, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.

The shells destroyed apartment buildings in southeast Grozny, an arms depot in a Grozny suburb, oil refineries and fuel stations selling oil stolen from pipelines from the Caspian Sea, the military command said.

By massing a larger force, estimated by Chechen media at 100,000 troops and advancing cautiously, Russia has avoided the heavy losses incurred during its humiliating loss to Chechen separatists in the 1994-96 war.

The federal forces have released no casualty figures in recent days. The death toll estimates for soldiers, rebels and civilians vary greatly and cannot be independently confirmed.

The Chechen army's press service, however, presented a video Sunday showing four Russian prisoners and the bodies of 12 Russian soldiers.

Despite mounting criticism from the West, Russia has not scaled back its Chechen offensive. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ruled out any easing of the intensity of the "anti- terrorist" operation. "There will be no pauses," he said on national television Saturday night.

Russian forces have been advancing cautiously towards Grozny in an attempt to encircle rebel forces

The Russian offensive also targeted suspected guerrilla positions near the capital in the towns of Bamut, Argun and Urus-Martan.

Resistance in Urus-Martan is one of the factors holding up the Russian bid to encircle Grozny. Residents of the rebel- held town, 15 kilometers (9 miles) northwest of Grozny, collected the bodies of men in civilian clothes from roadsides and from wrecked buildings over the weekend.

Several homes had sustained considerable damage from rockets and shells. Smashed beams protruded through shattered roofs and rooms were covered in broken glass and wrecked furniture.

In the past two weeks, Russian commanders have relied on talks with community leaders in Chechen villages and towns, promising an end to bombings if the rebels leave without fighting.

"We are going to work with the local population. We are not going to storm any cities," Col. Yury Em said.

Television reports said some of the 200,000 refugees who had fled the upsurge in fighting, mostly to Ingushetia, were moving back to their homes.

Yet other refugees on the Ingushetia border pushed through wet snow and a damp wind to flee Chechnya. Most were on foot, though some crossed in cars loaded with clothes, pots and blankets.

At a border point near Sleptsovskaya in Ingushetia, about 2,000 refugees crossed out of Chechnya on Sunday. Another 1,200 pushed back into Chechnya, many to retrieve belongings or relatives and leave again until the fighting dies down.

Some refugees at one camp inside Ingushetia said they lacked even basic facilities and had been told to return to Chechnya whether they liked it or not.

Moscow says its latest campaign is aimed at rooting out Islamic militants blamed for terrorist acts around Russia, and insists it is targeting rebel fighters, despite claims from human rights groups and Chechens that the civilian toll has been high.

Chechnya has effectively been beyond Moscow's control since Russian forces withdrew at the end of the 1994-96 war.

Correspondent Steve Harrigan, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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