1.   A spokesman for the rebel command said that all the top officers were safe and that their forces were preparing a counterattack.

2.   Such a deal would be extremely hard to implement under a rebel command that has spent the last three years preparing for war.

3.   While they have reached a tentative agreement, the fractured and sometimes competitive nature of the rebel command has complicated the completion of the accord, NATO officials said.

4.   A regional spokesman for the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army, Lirak Celaj, denied that the rebel command had any role in the atrocities.

5.   But the rebel command itself remained mum.

6.   In addition, Maskhadov is not believed to have enough authority over the fractured rebel command to enforce a cease-fire.

7.   Interfax said the rebel command promised to find and punish the sniper.

8.   Krasniqi is believed to be in the very top tier of the rebel command, which operates behind code names and a shroud of secrecy.

9.   Meanwhile, the rebel web site Kavkaz.org site highlighted the fractures that plague the rebel command.

10.   Rebels elsewhere in the city have put up fierce resistance, and the rebel command shows no sign of backing down.