Chechen Troops Take Stronghold

MOSCOW —  Government troops captured an opposition strong hold Monday after bloody overnight fighting killed dozens of people in the separatist Chechnya region of southern Russia.

It was the first significant success of the Chechen president, Dzhokar Dudayev, in his fight against the Kremlin-backed opposition after several days of clashes and an escalating war of words.

Moscow put some of its troops in the Caucasus on combat alert and ordered them to “localize” the fighting if it spreads beyond Chechnya, Russian Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev said in remarks carried by news agencies.

The Russian military also strengthened its outposts along major roads from Chechnya and increased control over the region’s airspace to prevent raids on border settlements and other “possible provocations by the Chechen air force,” Grachev said.

Dudayev, a former Soviet air force general who declared Chechnya independent in 1991, has accused Russia of planning to invade his mainly Muslim republic of 1.2 million to bring it back into the Kremlin’s fold. He has dismissed the opposition as Moscow’s puppets.

Overnight Sunday, Dudayev’s forces overran the opposition stronghold of Argun, 10 miles east of the Chechen capital, Grozny.