Moscow - Russians claimed to have killed 17 Chechen rebels and Chechens claimed 15 Russians dead in heavy fighting yesterday. A Russian spokesman said special forces killed 17 Chechen fighters and captured 23 others in Nozhay-Yurt and Vedeno, both near the Chechen capital, Grozny, and sustained no losses.
But a spokesman for the Chechen separatist president, Mr Aslan Maskhadov, said Chechen rebels had killed 15 Russian soldiers in Grozny and Argun, with three rebel fighters killed and seven wounded.
