Guerrillas in Chechnya had more than 150 Russian soldiers pinned down in Gudermes, the province's second largest city, a Russian military source said Monday. Fighting also was reported overnight in the capital of Grozny. Monday marked the fifth consecutive day of fighting that coincided with voting in national and local elections. The Moscow-appointed leader of Chechnya won 95 percent of Sunday's vote for the government of the breakaway republic, officials said. And while the government claimed voter turnout was high, observers reported voting appeared to be sparse.
Rebel groups refuse to acknowledge the results.
They boycotted the election because they demanded that Russian troops withdraw beforehand. The Russian army was sent to Chechnya a year ago to put down the rebels' independence movement. Twelve days after an airliner disappeared in Russia's Far East, a search team has reached the wreckage, airline officials said Monday. Investigators are expected there on Tuesday. Ninety-seven people were aboard the Khabarovsk Airlines plane, which was on an hourlong flight to Khaborovsk from the island of Sakhalin.