1 Russian warplanes pelted this town southwest of Grozny with bombs Monday, and more refugees streamed out of Chechnya as widespread fighting continued in the Grozny area.
2 Chechen fighters said the Russians had resumed bombing oil and chemical factories in and around the shattered capital. They saw the tactic as a sign of Russian frustration at still having failed to seize Grozny.
3 'It means they're losing hope of taking Grozny,' said Salaudin Kitayev, a chief in the Chechen special forces, standing at a crossroads about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Grozny. 'Otherwise, they'd save the factories for themselves.'
4 As Kitayev spoke, a Russian plane roared unseen overhead and delivered a bomb strike through thick clouds on the center of Alkhan-Yurt, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) away. Minutes later, another bomber followed suit.
5 Chechens at the crossroads didn't even flinch at the air raid, hardened by nearly two months of war in their homeland. It wasn't immediately clear whether the bombs had caused serious damage or casualties.
6 Khaki-clad Chechen fighters emerging from Grozny said their forces were tightening a circle around a force of about 70 Russian tanks and other armored vehicles in the southern suburb of Prigorodnoye, where they said a big battle was under way.
7 Scattered fighting also was reported inside the city, south of the Sunzha River, as the Russians tried to establish control.
8 The clashes were driving more and more refugees out of secessionist Chechnya, bound mostly for neighboring Ingushetia in mud-caked buses, packed cars and canvas-covered trucks.
9 Marina Bersanova, carrying three bags and shepherding her two small children ahead of her, said the overnight bombing on her area west of Grozny finally persuaded her to leave.
10 'The planes were flying literally right over our houses,' said Bersanova, 30, as she arrived in the Ingush capital, Nazran. 'The children were crying. They were very afraid. It is impossible to live there any longer.'
11 An official in Ingushetia said Sunday that his republic's population has swelled by half by the Chechen outflow, and the situation is fast becoming critical.
12 Some refugees have gone on to neighboring North Ossetia, Dagestan or elsewhere in Russia. But most stay in tiny Ingushetia, crammed into emergency housing or squeezed into private homes and putting tremendous stress on the already battered economy.
13 About 10,000 people have been arriving from Chechnya every week since Russian troops invaded the territory on Dec. 11 to suppress its claim to independence.
14 The Ingush share a common language, culture and the Muslim faith with the Chechens but are paying a high price for their hospitality.
15 There are now more than 140,000 refugees, the majority of them from Chechnya, in a region of 260,000 permanent residents.
16 Nazir Doskiyev, head of the Ingush immigration office, called it a 'very bad situation.'
17 'Soon there may be a deficit of food, beds and medicine here,' he said Sunday. 'If the refugees stay until summer, there may also be an epidemic. These are not reasonable living conditions.'
18 The estimated 50,000 people remaining in Grozny are living without water, heat, medicine or any safe way to get food, said Jean-Louis LaCaze, the director of operations for Doctors Without Borders in Chechnya.
19 'It is just terrible for them,' he said in Nazran. 'And now, it has become too dangerous for international organizations to get in there and help them.'
20 In Nazran, several thousand refugees occupy railroad cars, a school and other specially provided housing.
21 A cow is tied in the yard outside one brick building that is housing 43 people in eight rooms. Several refugees from Grozny, wearing skimpy coats or sweaters, shivered in the cold.
22 Each refugee is given free housing, blankets, some food and 20,500 rubles (dlrs 5) by the same Russian government that bombed them out of their homes.
23 Ultimately, the Chechens' powerful calling to their ancestral homeland, even if devastated, is what may prevent the refugee crisis from becoming a long-term disaster in Ingushetia and elsewhere. But first the war must end.

Chechen fighters said the Russians had resumed bombing oil and chemical factories in and around the shattered capital . They saw the tactic as a sign of Russian frustration at still having failed to seize Grozny .
seize Grozny
why does russia want to seize Grozny? Isn't Russia already a large country? Or is this to exert military power with the expectation of results in diplomacy?