Russian guns and warplanes pounded towns near Grozny yesterday, as Chechnya's leader appealed to President Clinton to help end the "criminal" onslaught for which Russian leaders should be put on trial.
Two aircraft bombed the village of Gekhi, 15 km south of Grozny, the Chechen capital, killing four people and injuring 11.
Russian guns shelled the outskirts of Grozny and warplanes bombed areas to the south, west and east of the city, forcing residents to join the thousands scrambling to leave for the relative safety of neighbouring Ingushetia.
The line of refugees waiting to cross to Ingushetia stretched for 7 km. Refugees passed freely through the crossing where last week several were killed in a fight to join 200,000 others who have already fled.
Ingush officials said thousands had entered the republic, while only about 1,000 had returned to Chechnya to find their loved ones in the war zone. Refugees have described the villages they left behind as ghost towns.
"I will never go back to Chechnya. It is a damned land," said Ms Satsita Busuyeva (30) after she crossed the border.
The Chechen President, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, a relative moderate who has little control over Chechen field commanders fighting for independence from Moscow, wrote to Mr Clinton for help in stopping what he called "the genocide of the Chechen people".
"We are ready for dialogue, ready to consider different ways of regulation which respect the rights of Chechens to live freely and safely," Mr Maskhadov said.
He added that the Russian Prime Minister, Mr Vladimir Putin, should be prosecuted for killing civilians, like President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia.
"Civilians have seen with their own eyes the monstrous barbarism of the Russian troops," Mr Maskhadov said in a Russian television interview.
Moscow has given no sign that it is ready to talk to Mr Maskhadov and has vowed to continue its six-week offensive.
A defence ministry spokesman said earlier Russian aircraft had bombed Chechnya's second-biggest city, Gudermes, and other villages to the east and south of Grozny, where troops say over 2,000 Islamic guerrillas have gathered.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin seemed uncertain about what to do next to bring the rebel republic to its knees.
"The defence ministry, general staff and all armed forces form a united and effective front," the Defence Minister, Marshal Igor Sergeyev, said in a joint statement with his chief-of-staff, Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin. "Any attempt to oppose the authorities and the military command is doomed to failure," it added.
The statement followed media reports on Saturday that President Boris Yeltsin could be about to suspend the military offensive in Chechnya and force Mr Putin to resign.
Other reports had already suggested several army generals would step down if the Kremlin bowed to Western pressure and opened negotiations with Mr Maskhadov. The Deputy Chief-of-Staff, Gen. Valery Manilov, rejected on Saturday a fresh appeal from the Chechen leader to negotiate a settlement to the crisis.