MOSCOW (Islamweb and News Agencies) - Chechen Resistance said they had seized control of towns and major roads in Chechnya on Saturday in their first coordinated attacks since Russian President Vladimir Putin's call for disarmament and talks. (Read photo caption)
Russian officials, quoted by news agencies, acknowledged widespread clashes and a number of deaths. But accounts of the fighting and the extent of casualties differed widely.
Putin issued his appeal on Monday, giving the Resistance 72 hours to start discussing disarmament with Moscow.
Russian officials acknowledged contacts with the Resistance had been made this week but with little apparent effect on events.
Putin and other officials link separatists in mainly Muslim Chechnya to a ``terrorist international'' and specifically to Osama bin Laden.
Resistance spokesman Movladi Udugov, speaking by satellite telephone from an undisclosed location, quoted a senior commander as saying Resistance commander Shamil Basayev had described the fresh attacks as prompted by Putin's ultimatum.
Interfax news agency said Resistance had advanced on Shali, opening fire on the military commander's office, administrative building and police headquarters and setting fire to the court house. It said four people were killed before they withdrew at dawn, taking a number of dead and wounded with them.
Agencies reported a four-hour battle at a police station in Kurchaloi, further east, with three officers killed and 14 wounded. An administrative building in the nearby town of Serzhen-Yurt had also been set on fire.
A spokeswoman for Sergei Yastrzhembsky, chief Kremlin spokesman on Chechnya, said groups of about 10 fighters had attacked Shali and Kurchaloi. Casualties were being checked.
``Federal (Russian) forces opened fire and the groups of fighters were dispersed,'' the spokeswoman said. ``The situation in (Chechnya) is generally calm.''
FIGHTING GOES ON
Udugov said he believed more than 2,000 fighters were involved in the operation launched at midnight and that up to 250 Russian servicemen had been killed.
``Fighting is continuing in Shali, Argun and Avtury and Stariye and Noviye Atagi, which are all under the control of Chechen forces,'' Udugov said, referring to towns in mountainous areas southeast of Chechnya's devastated capital Grozny.
He quoted accounts from Arab-born Khattab, a senior Resistance commander, as saying 25 fighting units were taking part in the operation, with major routes now under their control.
The fresh attacks come just weeks after the Resistance rattled Russian forces with their biggest offensive in months, attacking several towns and shooting down a helicopter carrying two generals and eight other top officers.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Russian sappers carry a shell which was placed as an explosive devise near a road in the Chechen capital of Grozny, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2001. Russian media reported Monday that hundreds of Chechen rebels had descended on Gudermes, a city in northern Chechnya that Russian forces reclaimed early in their conflict with separatists. (AP Photo/ Yuri Tutov)