Russian warplanes bombed a Chechen village yesterday morning, killing 27 people including nine children, residents said. Russia has pressed its offensive in Chechnya forward this weekend, and sealed refugees into the war zone, despite mounting criticism from the West of civilian casualties.
A Reuters cameraman, Mr Alkha Tosuyev, said he had arrived at the village of SerzhenYurt in time for the funerals of 27 people and had seen the damage done by the bombing. Large numbers of wounded had been taken to the hospital in Shali, a nearby town.
Mr Tosuyev also said large crowds of refugees were being turned back at a new road block Russian forces had set up on the highway leading out of Chechnya to the west.
Over the weekend, Russia kept the last escape route from the fighting in Chechnya sealed off as artillery fire poured down on the outskirts of the rebel republic's capital, Grozny.
Federal tanks occupied the main road linking Grozny and the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia, where Chechens have fled the violence raging in their republic for seven weeks.
Several thousand people were reported stranded at the border or ordered by the federal troops back into Chechnya. Commanders have been issued with instructions to shoot on sight any person trying to slip into Russia. Moscow justified its decision to lock refugees in by accusing Chechen "terrorists" of attempting to sneak into Russia by hiding among refugees.
The Ingush president, Mr Ruslan Aushev, angrily denounced the Russian move as an infringement of human rights.
"I am outraged by these actions. We should not be fighting with women, grandfathers and children," Mr Aushev said. "Civilians are suffering as a result of the military operations, while the bandits are running back and forth."
He added that nearly 170,000 Chechens have already taken refuge in his republic. The flow of refugees intensified after Russian tanks and artillery pulled up to Grozny last Monday and opened fire on the capital's suburbs from the surrounding hills.
The fighting continued yesterday as Chechen military sources claimed they had repelled four separate federal troop offensives.
Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov's office said 2,500 civilians had been killed and more than 5,000 injured since Russia first launched air and artillery strikes against its separatist republic on September 5th.
Heavy fighting continued overnight in the western Chechen village of Bamut and the eastern town of Vedeno, the birthplace of the Chechen warlord, Mr Shamil Basayev.
Grozny said 23 civilians were killed in Vedeno early yesterday when a Russian rocket crashed into the city centre. Officials in Moscow refused to confirm the report. Moscow also failed to confirm Chechen claims that separatist fighters had shot down three more Russian warplanes.
The Russian military struggled to explain away a wave of explosions last week that killed 137 people in Grozny. Witnesses said the strikes were delivered by at least five cruise missiles launched from beyond the eastern Chechen border.
The Moscow military first said the blasts were caused by a special "non-military" Russian operation in Chechnya. Acknowledging only one explosion, Gen Valery Manilov said the blast was "a result of a non-military operation - two competing [Chechen] gangs had an altercation".
The Chechen gunfight, Gen Manilov said, took place near a large arms storage dump.
He denounced comments in Washington by the acting US Secretary of State, Mr Strobe Talbott, who said the blasts had "raised concern in the United States and elsewhere about prospects for a peaceful settlement of the conflict". The Russian general said Mr Talbott's comments "only indirectly reflect what is really happening in the North Caucasus".