Moscow police name two as leading suspects in search for bomb attackers

In what appeared to signal a major breakthrough in the hunt for the bombers who have killed almost 300 people in Moscow over the past 17 days, police have released the names of two men they regard as prime suspects.

As part of the security clampdown promised by the Prime Minster, Mr Vladimir Putin, truckloads of soldiers were seen driving into the capital last night to strengthen an already widespread security presence.

Police named Achimes Gochiyayev (29), a native of the Caucasus republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia but of Chechen origin, as the leader of the group which killed hundreds of Muscovites as they slept in their apartment blocks in southern regions of the city.

Mr Gochiyayev was reported to be linked to fundamentalist Wahhabi Islamic groups in the southern region of Dagestan who form part of rebel forces fighting Russian federal troops. He is understood to have taken on the identity and documents of a man named Mukhit Laipanov who was killed in a car accident earlier this year.

Apartments in Guryanova Street, where 94 people died, and Kashirskoyey Chausee, where more than 120 lost their lives, were rented in Mr Laipanov's name. Mr Gochiyayev's accomplice was named as Denis Saitakov, a native of Uzbekistan.

Two other suspects, both Chechens, Timur Dakhkilogov (32) and Bikmar Sautiyev (40), were being held in Moscow's Lefortovo prison. Both were said to have minute traces of explosives on their hands but both deny any wrongdoing.

Police also announced they had found four tonnes of explosives at an address in south-eastern Moscow not far from where the first major attack on an apartment block took place.

The prime minister, at a closed session of the Federation Council - the Russian senate - won backing for what he described as "the most resolute, well-considered operations in the shortest possible time", in order to prevent further bombings and pursue the hunt for the bombers. The measures would, Mr Putin said, include strikes inside Chechnya - raising fears of a renewal of the disastrous Chechen war.

The security situation has also spawned panic on the political front, with speculation that President Yeltsin may soon resign and that he has already approached the governor of Krasnoyarsk, Gen Alexander Lebed, to take over as prime minister from Mr Putin.

Although senators failed to call on Mr Yeltsin to resign at yesterday's meeting, the very fact that the subject was raised has been regarded as a strong warning to the president. Earlier this week, in an interview with the New York Times, the Federation Council's Speaker, Mr Yegor Stroyev, said it would be better for Russia if Mr Yeltsin left office.

Gen Lebed, a member of the senate, said the people of Russia now felt betrayed by their leaders for not protecting them against terrorist violence, while the senate's 10 communist members railed at Mr Yeltsin for what they claimed was his inability to run the country.

In the lower house, the State Duma, there was also evidence of tension and the ultra-right leader, Mr Vladimir Zhirnovsky, was suspended for a month after he described opposing deputies as "pigs and traitors" because they complained that untrained conscripts were being sent in to fight well-trained Islamic militants in Dagestan. Federal forces said yesterday that 230 Russian troops have been killed and 875 injured since fighting broke out in Dagestan on August 7th. Islamic forces have not given casualty figures but Chechen government sources claim 300 civilians have been killed in air raids.

Up to 20,000 refugees have fled the Dagestan fighting and there were reports yesterday that large numbers of the region's 10,000-strong Jewish community were applying for asylum in Israel.