GALASHKI, Russia, September 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - After splitting into small groups, Chechen independence activists crossed back into Chechnya from the neighboring Caucasian republic of Ingushetia Sunday, September 29, 2002. This came following three days of fierce fighting with Russian troops near the Ingush village of Galashki.

Maierbek Vashagaiev, spokesman for Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, said he was in contact Sunday afternoon with Ruslan Gelayev, the commander of the troops fighting the Russians at Galashki, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Gelayev said three Chechen detachments returned to base in the mountains above Ashkhoy-Martan. He said 13 Chechens had been killed and wounded and about 50 Russian soldiers died.

Russian officials, for their part, claimed they killed 117 activists from a force of up to 300 that entered Ingushetia via the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Russia admitted to losing 17 soldiers.

The tolls have not been independently verified.

Russian armed forces continued Sunday their search for Chechen groups and cut off their escape routes into Chechnya, Interfax news agency said.

Chechen fighters withdrawing from Galachki attempted to contact Saudi Arabia by cellular phone, an unnamed Russian military source told Interfax.

Russia describes its three-year war in Muslim Chechnya as an "anti-terrorist" campaign to suppress an Islamic insurgency backed by Arab countries. It regularly claims to have uncovered evidence of contacts between the Chechens and Islamic backers.

A federal spokesman said surviving rebel groups were attempting to reach Bamut in southwestern Chechnya and that two had been killed Friday outside the village of Nesterovskaya.

Russian missiles and artillery pounded a forest near the village of Bamut overnight, ITAR-TASS quoted Ingush officials as saying.

Meanwhile police were checking the identity of every person left in Galashki.

"All the women and children have been evacuated to other villages and they will stay away as long as the police are here", a villager said.

Earlier Sunday, Chechen sources said that the activists formed groups of between three and five fighters in the hope of breaking through a military cordon and breaking through into the Achkhoi-Martan and Urus-Martan districts of western Chechnya.

At Galashki, the scene of fierce fighting Thursday, September 26, the mood remained tense but calm, with shops and offices functioning normally.

The activists have advanced means of communications and portable anti-aircraft missile systems, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted a military source at the army headquarters in Vladikavkaz, capital of the neighboring republic of North Ossetia, as saying.

Troops are combing a forest near the border between Ingushetia and North Ossetia where a group of 15 gunmen are believed to be hiding, it said, quoting Ingush officials.