MOSCOW - Russian troops lifted their blockade of the Chechen village of Gekhi yesterday, allowing local people to return to their homes and bury their dead. Witnesses saw fours burned out Russian armoured vehicles and estimated that around a third of homes in the town of some 14,000 people had been destroyed.
A Chechen spokesman, Mr, Movladi Udugov, said yesterday over 400 civilians had been killed since Russian forces launched a massive artillery and air offensive in Chechnya last week. Some 25 Chechen separatists had also died in the fighting, he said.