Russia vowed to resume its offensive in Chechnya with full force yesterday after a holiday lull during which rebels launched a counterattack and inflicted on the army its heaviest one-day reported losses to date.
Moscow called a temporary halt to attacks on the regional capital, Grozny, last Thursday to mark Orthodox Christmas and the end of the Muslim Ramadan fasting period. President Aslan Maskhadov of Chechnya had called for a similar limited ceasefire.
Although fighting in Grozny died down, there was little let-up elsewhere. Rebels penetrated Russian lines and struck at three towns Russian forces had controlled for several weeks, Argun, Gudermes and Shali. Russian officials said they had repulsed most of the attacks and would impose a curfew.
"From now on we will never again trust their promises, including those of Maskhadov," Col Gen Viktor Kazantsev, commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, told reporters. "There will be no mercy for them."
The Defence Minister, Mr Igor Sergeyev, said troops would now resume attacks against rebels in full after the self-imposed lull. "What truce can there be after this mean, treacherous strike?" RIA news agency quoted him as saying.
A rebel spokesman, Mr Movladi Udugov, said the weekend attacks heralded a change of strategy for the Chechens, who would now focus on partisan warfare and avoid frontal clashes with Russian troops enjoying overwhelming firepower.
"We will strike without respite at their outposts throughout Chechnya, one by one, leaving them no time to come to their senses," he said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
He said the rebels were firmly holding on to the positions they had captured in the weekend raids. NTV television reported from Russia's main regional army base of Mozdok, over the border from Chechnya, that fighting was continuing in all three towns.
ITAR-TASS news agency quoted the Eastern Group of Russian forces, based in the adjacent Dagestan region, as saying it had lost 26 men in the past 24 hours. Interior Ministry troops had borne the brunt of casualties. Officials could not immediately confirm the dispatch.