1 Making headway in Chechnya's rebel capital of Grozny, Russian forces on Thursday clamped down on the countryside, blocking more roads and firing on villages south of the city.
2 Some Chechen fighters who used to travel to Grozny to wage battle are now returning to defend their home villages, according to a tense group in green Islamic headbands guarding the approach to the western village of Samashky.
3 Russian Mi-24 helicopter gunships circled low over the village, which lies on the main road through Chechnya. A haze of black smoke hung in the distance toward Grozny, and explosions could be heard from the direction south of the city.
4 'Do not attempt to resist!' blared the message from a high-flying helicopter over Samashky shortly after the gunships left. The message appeared to be a warning that a Russian convoy was to come through.
5 Refugees trickled west toward neighboring Ingushetia, bringing tales of destruction south of the capital.
6 'We saw one constant battle,' Masud Zhunidov, 33, said of his drive Friday morning from the village of Goiti, where he had left his wife and children with relatives about 10 kilometers (six miles) south of Grozny.
7 He said he saw burning buildings in Yermolovka and Alkha-Kli and that the village of Chechen-Aul have been destroyed by shelling. Others reported bombing in Bamut, a southeastern village that has been under Russian air attack for days.
8 'This is the only road out now, and it's dangerous,' he said. 'Where can we go?'
9 Just a few kilometers (miles) down the road from the Chechen checkpoint at Samashky was a Russian checkpoint where dozens of Interior Ministry troops stood guard. They stopped cars and watched as several Mi-24s flew overhead toward Grozny.
10 'This is a real guerrilla war,' said one, wearing a black ski mask. 'It's going to last a long time.'
11 Both sides accused the other of posting snipers in nearby mountains and forests.
12 Samashky villagers said a few houses on the village's outskirts had been bombed early Wednesday and livestock killed.
13 'Now I sleep in one house one night and another house the next night,' said Ayshat Akhmedova, 57, as she stood in the bombed-out ruins of the four-room house where she had lived with seven family members.
14 Chechen fighters acknowledge pulling back from Grozny, and Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev reportedly ordered his armed followers out of the city.
15 One rebel spokesman told the Interfax news agency that they had moved their headquarters out of the devastated city, but he said armed groups would remain behind to harass the Russians. 'We are not giving up the city,' Interfax quoted him as saying.
16 Russian authorities claimed that their forces had crossed Grozny's Sunzha River, which has been the front line in the city for weeks. Clashes continued in the city.

" Do not attempt to resist ! " blared the message from a high - flying helicopter over Samashky shortly after the gunships left . The message appeared to be a warning that a Russian convoy was to come through .
blared the message
Who was speaking?