MOSCOW, Nov 27 (AFP) - At least 260 people were killed between Thursday and Saturday in the Russian strikes on Grozny, as the Russian Army announced it would intensify its attacks.
Russian military officials said they would step up their blockade of Grozny. Russian armed forces chief Anatoly Kvashnin said the army would "neither suspend nor cut back our military operations in Chechnya." Military operations in the Muslim republic are now into their third and final phase and should be over by the end of the year, according to federal army sources.
The Russian government's envoy to Chechnya, Nikolai Kochman, said an 80-km (48 mile) stretch of the border between Chechnya and Georgia would be closed within six to eight weeks.
The measure was being taken to "cut off possible outside help" to the Chechen mujahedin, Kvashnin said.
Moscow has accused the Georgian government on several occasions of allowing arms traffickers and Chechen fighters to cross their republic - accusations Georgia has vehemently denied.
Reporting on the latest death toll, Grozny Mayor Lesha Dudayev said he expected it to be over 500, according to Interfax agency, whose correspondent in Grozny confirmed bombing was continuing amid scenes of devastation Saturday.
The mayor said that because of the difficulties facing emergency services, the death toll was being calculated based on survivors' reports.
The Interfax correspondent reported all hospitals in the capital were out of action and some casualties were dying in the streets because they could not be evacuated to hospitals elsewhere.
Hundreds of houses have been flattened and streets rendered impassable with craters measuring up to 10 meters (33 feet) caused by the strikes and shelling, Interfax said.
Inhabitants have been reduced to collecting water from puddles during lulls in the bombing. Bread and other basic food products are nowhere to be found, Interfax said.
Supplies of water, gas and electricity have been cut since Russian troops began their offensive on October 1.
Grozny underwent near round-the-clock bombardment Friday after Russian forces overnight unleashed their heaviest attack so far.
Russian forces on Saturday said they would step up artillery fire and bombing on the southern suburbs of the capital, but would not storm Grozny itself.
Federal troops said they would also intensify attacks Saturday on the strategic rebel stronghold Urus-Martan, 20 km (12 miles) southwest of Grozny, the federal army sources added.
Government envoy Kochman announced Saturday the army would take Urus-Martan in a week to 10 days. That estimate is up from "just a few days," when the Russian Army found sustained resistance from Chechen mujahedin.
Russian forces hope that by wresting control of Urus-Martan, the last mujahedin bastion between federal soldiers and the Chechen capital, they will persuade Grozny to surrender.
The latest attacks come one day before the scheduled visit of the president of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Knut Vollebaek. He will discuss the possibility of a visit to the Caucasus region in December. Moscow denied a request earlier this month for Vollebaek and an OSCE delegation to enter Chechnya while they were on a visit to the neighboring republic of Ingushetia.
Moscow also announced Saturday that 24,957 refugees out of a total of more than 200,000 had been able to go back to their homes in Chechen territory occupied by Russian troops.
