Nine Russian soldiers were killed in a major battle which raged in southern Russia on Thursday after Chechen fighters downed a Russian military helicopter, army regional command said. Fierce fighting erupted between a large group of Chechen fighters and security forces around the village of Galashki in Russia's Ingushetia region -- just across the border from Chechnya after a Chechen missile brought down the Mi-24 helicopter gunship, killing its two-man crew.

The army regional command said seven other Russian soldiers, members of military reconnaissance, had also been killed.

The new clash came against a background of angry charges by Russian President Vladimir Putin against neighboring Georgia that its former Soviet ally is allowing its territory to be used as a launch-pad for Chechen fightercross-border operations into Chechnya.

The accusations have been denied by Georgia. But Putin has warned Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze that Russia could make military strikes inside Georgia if the raids continue.

"The helicopter was hit by a shoulder-launched rocket at around 0800 hrs (4 a.m. GMT), an unnamed Russian military source in the Transcaucasus region was quoted by Interfax as saying.

The chopper came down on Galashki itself and the two-member crew was killed, the source said.

Agencies said a major battle erupted as about 150 Chechen fighters tried to seize control of bridges inside Galashki to secure free passage into nearby Chechnya.

A separate Interfax report, quoting a Russian military source, said more than 30 Chechen fightershad been "killed and wounded."

CASUALTIES

No independent confirmation of these casualties was available. An interior ministry spokesman in Ingushetia, reached by telephone, said: "All we can confirm is that a special operation is going on in Galashki."

Ingushetia borders to its east the North Caucasus region of Chechnya where Russia has been trying to snuff out a separatist rebellion for most of the past eight years.

Russian news agencies made an immediate link with Georgia quoting Russian military sources as saying the unit of Chechen fightershad been based in Georgia's Pankisi Gorge and had crossed into Russian territory since mid-September.

Georgia says it is carrying out successful operations to root out Chechen fighters based in the lawless gorge, an effort Russia has scoffed at.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov repeated to journalists in Warsaw Wednesday that Russia would launch strikes into Georgia if Chechen fighterattacks from there continued.

"If terrorist attempts to penetrate (into Russia) from Georgia are repeated, then we will combat them with military methods with all the consequences that follow from that," he said.

PHOTO CAPTION

Russian soldiers on an armored personnel carrier in Grozny, Chechnya, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2002. Russia will beef up its forces in separatist Chechnya with special police drawn from Interior Ministry troops, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said Wednesday, according to Russian news reports. The announcement comes in the wake of recent notable Russian losses to Chechen nationalist fighters, against whom they have been fighting since September 1999. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)
- Sep 18 2:29 PM ET