Russian military sources have put the number of dead in an ambush of interior ministry forces in Chechnya at 37, writes Seamus Martin. The attack, late on Thursday night, took place in the Staropromyslovsky district of Grozny, which Russia claimed to have been cleared of rebels a month ago.
The Russian convoy of nine trucks was carrying almost 100 personnel when attacked by Chechen rebels. The official ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Gen Sergei Kucherok as saying that 12 soldiers died during the attack and a further 25 later in hospital in Grozny.
The rebel Internet information site claimed that 60 Russians had been killed. "This is a dark day in police history," the Interior Minister, Mr Vladimir Rushailo, said in a television interview. "This tells us that the situation really is difficult, and that our conduct of the counter-terrorist operation does not always end in success. Of course, we will demand explanations from officials who are in charge of guaranteeing the convoy's safe transport," he added.
The casualty figure is the largest admitted by Moscow for a single engagement in the current campaign. While the Chechen war accounts for a great deal of the popularity of acting president Vladimir Putin, this latest reverse is unlikely to affect his support in the presidential election on March 26th.
The conduct of the war was strongly condemned yesterday by the European Union and the United States, whose representatives met Russia's Foreign Minister, Mr Igor Ivanov, in Lisbon. "The situation in Chechnya was foremost on our minds, and we don't mince words," the US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said.
Ms Albright told a press conference that the US and EU had "called for a full investigation of credible reports of atrocities and human rights abuses".
In Beijing, however, the Chinese president, Mr Jiang Zemin, told the visiting Russian vice-premier, Mr Ilya Klebanov, that China supported Russia's actions.