RUSSIA: CHECHNYA: RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE AGAINST BAMUT FALTERS

(23 Apr 1995) Natural Sound The corpses of more Russian soldiers are being discovered despite claims by Moscow that the war in Chechnya is almost over. A Russian offensive around the Chechen village of Bamut faltered earlier this week. On Sunday bodies and equipment were found littering the streets indicating significant Russian losses. Chechens celebrating another recent victory - as these dead Russian troops apparently fell into the same trap they did in Grozny. Chechen rebels fighting off the Russian assault on the village of Bamut kept to their old strategy with deadly success. They allowed the advancing Russian forces to enter Bamut before surrounding them and then raining machine-gun and rocket fire on them. The Russians, largely strangers to this territory and village, were caught and repulsed. Corpses still littered Bamut's streets this morning after the attack which started last week and has continued. A brief cease-fire was reported today to allow Russian forces to re