MOSCOW Russian troops backed by helicopter gunships and mortars attacked a group of alleged Chechen militants on Monday, Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo said. The assault killed some of the 150-200 Chechens in the group but none of the interior ministry troops were hurt, he said, according to the ITAR-TASS and Interfax news agencies. No precise figures were given. The attack came two days after Rushailo announced that he had ordered preemptive strikes on Chechen rebels who were planning attacks on Russian border posts around the breakaway republic.

Several Russian border posts have come under attack in recent weeks, and Rushailo called his order Saturday a response to those attacks. ``There have been a mass of threats, earlier too, and some of them have been realized,'' Interfax quoted Rushailo as saying Monday. ``We should be extremely attentive. We should be prepared for everything. But our reaction should be appropriate and we should answer each blow with a blow, sometimes even preempting a blow.'' He spoke with reporters after discussing security issues, including the situation in the volatile north Caucasus region, with President Boris Yeltsin. Chechnya is still formally part of Russia, but it is completely outside Moscow's control and has been running its own affairs since federal troops withdrew after the 1994-6 war, in which tens of thousands of people were killed.

(AP)