DAGESTANI villagers, witnesses to the Russian onslaught on Chechen hostage takers, watched in horror yesterday as helicopter gunships and multiple rocket launchers pounded the village of Pervomaiskoye where the defiant rebels were holed up.
It was clear from the Russian tactics that all hope of freeing the hostages had been abandoned and that the forces were now concentrating on levelling the village and all its occupants. A spokesman for the Russian command admitted that they had given up hope of saving the hostages.
Black smoke billowed from Pervomaiskoye as Russian forces, surrounding the village opened up a massive artillery barrage at around 11.0 a.m. (Irish time), after special forces were ordered out of Pervomaiskoye earlier in the day.
The assault which began on Monday met with fierce resistance from the heavily armed but vastly outnumbered Chechen rebels.
As helicopters flew overhead, unleashing rockets at the smoking ruins of Pervomaiskoye, the men of Sovetskoye climbed up a hill to watch the bombardment, while the women huddled outside their homes.
Russian military officials announced on the record" yesterday that they had given up hope of freeing the remaining hostages trapped in the village. Before the assault, the 150 rebels were holding more than 100 hostages, most of them civilians brought from the border town of Kizlyar in a bus convoy a week ago.
Exhausted Russian soldiers who pulled back to Sovetskoye said they had suffered "major setbacks" during the night. "We took heavy losses. It was tough," said one member of the Dagestani Omon, the Interior Ministry special forces.
As Grad rocket launchers fired off salvoes, Maj Gen Alexander Mikhailov, spokesman for the Federal Security Service (FSB) gave about 20 journalists in Sovetskoye 10 minutes to pack up and leave.
It is clear that the hostages are being executed," Gen Mikhailov said. "Now we are in a situation where it is not a question of liberating hostages."
Russian troops also prevented journalists approaching the hostages who had fled the occupied village.
. The Kremlin said yesterday it had warned Ankara about the danger of an attack of the kind involving the Black Sea ferry, Avrasya. A foreign ministry statement said it had warned the Turkish authorities about the danger of Chechen "extremists" operating on their territory.
"We have informed the Turkish side more than once about the dangerous anti Russian activity of the extremist part of the Chechen diaspora and emmissaries of (Chechen rebel leader Dzhokhar) Dudayev on the territory of Turkey," a foreign ministry statement said.
. A man who took 28 bus passengers hostage yesterday near Surgut in western Siberia was seriously wounded when police stormed the bus to end the siege, Russian television reported. The report said the man, armed with a pistol, seized the bus and demanded an aircraft to fly to Kizlyar in Dagestan, interior ministry special forces stormed the bus two hours later, seriously wounding the hostage taker. None of the hostages was hurt, the television said.
Conor O'Clery reports from Washington:
The US Defence Secretary, Mr William Perry, said yesterday that Russia was justified in using military force against Chechen rebels holding hostages and he wished the Russian military forces well.
His comments contrast with those of the White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, who expressed concern on Tuesday that Russia's use of military force would deepen the conflict in Chechnya.
Mr Perry told reporters in the Pentagon he would not want to second guess Moscow's decision to attack the village of Pervomaiskoye.
"We would have . . . chosen a surgical operation rather than the massive, frontal use of force, but I don't want to put myself in the position of second guessing the Russian military," Mr Perry said. "It's a very difficult situation there and I wish them well."
The State Department spokesman, Mr Nicholas Burns, blamed Chechen rebels as well as the Russian government for the violence. He condemned the hostage taking as reprehensible terrorism" and said it was causing the rebels to lose support in the international community.