11.   The brutality of the Russian offensive is astonishing.

12.   The Chechen leader, Aslan Maskhadov, has responded to the Russian offensive by declaring martial law, Russian news media reported.

13.   The Russian offensive began to go awry, as before, when commanders finally ordered an assault on Grozny on Christmas Day.

14.   The Russian military did not allow Russian television crews and Western reporters to observe the fighting in Grozny Thursday, and accounts of the Russian offensive there are fragmentary.

15.   The Russian offensive has already been costly.

16.   Those are the images the public is seeing of the Russian offensive against separatists in Chechnya, and they are not making the Russian government very happy.

17.   This is the second major Russian offensive against the Islamic rebels in the city, who have stubbornly refused to surrender.

18.   Those bombings galvanized support for a new Russian military offensive in Chechnya.

19.   Putin has promoted the Russian military offensive in Chechnya, a drive that has widespread popular support.

20.   Rebel commanders in the area said the Russian offensive became bogged down in the mountains and forests around Bamut, the Interfax news agency reported.