The funerals have taken place in Russia of eleven soldiers killed in a Chechen ambush last Friday. Moscow has vowed to press on with its offensive in the breakaway republic. The soldiers from the elite OMON squad were killed during an ambush near the Chechen capital Grozny. Their deaths had raised domestic concern that the campaign may yet yield heavy Russian casualties such as those that occurred during the 1996 war.
However, in Moscow, the government is continuing to insist that hundreds of Chechen fighters are being defeated daily. They added that more rebels in the south of the country have surrendered to the Russian forces.
