Resistance fighters in the southern Russian region of Chechnya claim to have killed 17 pro-Moscow police in a filmed attack posted on a separatist Web Site on Sunday. The video, which the Web Site said was recorded on Tuesday just outside the Chechen capital of Grozny, shows a white van being ripped apart in a huge explosion. One man appears from the mangled wreckage, and staggers back and forth until he is rescued by a jeep which appears about 30 seconds later. A second, smaller explosion follows about a minute after the jeep's arrival.

"Resulting from a successful attack of the Chechen mujihadeen (Muslim warriors fighting for a just cause), a bus was almost completely destroyed along with 15 occupiers and traitors," a statement posted with the video said.

"One of the collaborators by some kind of miracle was left alive after the explosion... A second explosion, a couple of minutes later, destroyed another two occupiers," it added.

The Kremlin has fought separatists in Chechnya for more than a decade since the collapse of Soviet rule and claims to be bringing the region, which is half the size of Belgium, under control, although clashes occur almost daily.

There have been no announcements on Russian news agencies or television channels of the alleged attack, which was described on www.kavkazcenter.com.

Last month Chechens overwhelmingly approved a new constitution tying the majority Muslim region to Moscow, which has prompted the Kremlin to dismiss separatists as irrelevant.

Separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov dismissed the vote as a farce, while many western human rights groups have said the war-wracked region was not ready to go to the polls.

Separatists appear to have stepped up operations since the vote. Eight civilian workers and five police were killed in two separate mine explosions earlier this month.

The Web Site www.kavkazcenter.com is a major source of separatist news and run by Movladi Udugov, the mastermind of Chechen propaganda during Moscow's first campaign, which ended in 1996 with Russian withdrawal and three years of de facto Chechen independence.

Russian troops were ordered back into Chechnya by now-President Vladimir Putin in 1999, and Putin's record of cracking down on separatism has helped underpin his popularity.

PHOTO CAPTION

Russian servicemen patrol the streets of the Chechen capital Grozny, Wednesday, April 16, 2003. (AP Photo/Musa Sadulayev)