MOSCOW -- Russian generals, weary of cat-and-mouse clashes with Chechen guerrillas, said on Friday they would take their troops out of the safety of army bases and deploy them in small contingents across the rebel region.
The armed forces chief of staff, Anatoly Kvashnin, said a task force would hunt down leading Chechen commanders who form the backbone of rebel resistance 14 months after Russia mounted its second campaign to crush the separatists.
"I think that this will be the most resolute stage of the anti-terrorist operation," Kvashnin said in an interview with the military daily Krasnaya Zvezda, using Moscow's preferred term to describe the military drive.
The decision, certain to expose troops to greater danger, illustrates the degree of exasperation in the Kremlin with the military's inability to stamp out rebel attacks and stem a steady trickle of Russian casualties.
The military has repeatedly vowed that it will deal the rebels a crushing blow this winter.
Russia's longstanding strategy has provided for troops based in a handful of strong points to launch search-and-destroy raids against the rebels, backed up by shelling and aircraft fire.
Troops come under daily bomb and firearm attacks by the rebels.
In a typical dispatch from the region, Russian news agencies said that, over the previous 24 hours, artillery had pounded remote areas where rebels had been spotted and the guerrillas had mounted 16 hit-and-run attacks on Russian positions.
(Reuter)