Chechen rebels killed at least six Russian soldiers in an ambush on Thursday, the Interfax news agency reported, while Moscow was scrambling to settle a raging conflict between its appointees in the republic.
The latest rebel attacks were scattered across the southeastern mountains of Chechnya, where most of the remaining fighters are thought to be based.
Interfax cited Russian military officials in Chechnya as saying that at least six soldiers and police officers were killed, and 11 others wounded in overnight and early morning attacks.
ITAR-TASS, meanwhile, reported that four Russians were killed. It was not immediately clear whether the two news agencies were referring to the same series of rebel strikes.
The rebels for their part said in an Internet-posted report that they killed 18 Russians in a two-hour gunfight late Tuesday near the southeastern settlement of Zhanni-Vedeno.
The report said another 20 Russians were injured while only two Chechens were killed.
But Moscow has sometimes been forced to confirm casualties that had initially been dismissed as war propaganda by their generals in Chechnya.
Meanwhile, Moscow was scrambling Thursday to smooth out an embarrassing rift between its top two appointees to the rebel republic's pro-Russian administration -- Akhmad Kadyrov and his deputy Bislan Gantamirov, who are both ethnic Chechens.
Kadyrov fought with the rebels in the 1994-96 war, which left the republic with de facto independence.
After the war, Kadyrov appeared to break ranks with separatist President Aslan Maskhadov and has been courted by Moscow as a possible replacement to the rebel leader who would promote warm ties with Russia.
Yet Kadyrov has poor relations with Russia's military in Chechnya -- who suspect he is still on close terms with, and might actually be aiding, rebel fighters -- and has turned into Gantamirov's sworn enemy.
Gantamirov led his own pro-Moscow Chechen force into the rebel capital Grozny at the start of the war and has since vowed to restore the ruined city with the use of his well-armed followers.
Yet Gantamirov was incensed when Kadyrov on Monday fired four of his supporters from senior administrative posts in Grozny.
On Tuesday, in what appeared to be a clear show of force, Gantamirov and several of his followers surrounded Kadyrov's administration building in the republic's second city of Gudermes. They had to be disbanded by Russian federal troops.
Gantamirov has promised to stage a similar military exercise in Grozny on Thursday. Officials in Moscow said a criminal case has been opened against Gantamirov in response.
President Vladimir Putin's top representative for the southern Russian region, General Viktor Kazantsev, will attempt to meet on Thursday with the two feuding representatives in a bid to settle the feud.
The three have tentatively arranged a meeting in Russia's southern military base Mozdok.
However, Moscow media has already labeled the dispute as clear evidence that the Kremlin has very limited options in its efforts to find a political solution to the war -- MOSCOW (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
