GROZNY, Chechnya -- Opposition officials in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya have described their latest helicopter strike against troops loyal to the Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev as "a show of strength" and warned that it will be followed imminently by a major attack against government forces. An opposition spokesman claimed the Chechen capital Grozny could be seized "within three or four hours."


On Monday morning, at least two Russian-made attack helicopters fired rockets at a government position near the village of Alkha-Yurt on the outskirts of Grozny. The sound of the explosions could be heard clearly in the city center. No one was injured in the attack, which came exactly 24 hours after a similar strike against a government-held airport north of Grozny, during which three training jets were destroyed.


Opposition claims that the simmering conflict between government and opposition forces has now reached a "final stage" was supported by Ruslan Khasbulatov, the former Russian parliamentary chairman, who has returned to his native Chechnya as head of "professor Khasbulatov's peacekeeping group."


Speaking in an interview with The Moscow Times, a smiling but characteristically haggard-looking Khasbulatov said his attempts to find a peaceful solution to the power battle raging inside Chechnya were now redundant.


A "decisive" military strike against "Dzhokhar Dudayev's tyrannical regime" was now the only way forward. But Khasbulatov stressed that he would not be taking any part in a military confrontation.


Officials at the opposition Provisional Council, based in the town of Znamenskoye, 70 kilometers northwest of Grozny, echoed Khasbulatov's predictions. Council press spokesman Ruslan Martagov said the opposition had now "enough forces to get rid of Dudayev" and he acknowledged that the opposition was responsible for Monday's helicopter attack. "It was a show of strength," he said, "to let them know that we are in charge and could crush them in an instant."


Lechi Saligov, chairman of the council's information committee, said opposition forces "could take Grozny in three or four hours." He said the council had only hesitated out of the desire "to spare as much blood as possible." Saligov said the council would pardon all but "about 20" senior officials in the Dudayev government.


But while opposition officials are already looking confidently to a post-Dudayev era, the question of who, or what, would replace Chechnya's infamous leader is now an exciting, growing controversy.


Ruslan Khasbulatov has not ruled out his own political resurrection, one year after he was escorted, scowling, from the burning shell of the Russian parliament building in Moscow. "Some people call me a leader ... if the people choose, who can argue with them?"


But several opposition figures were critical of Khasbulatov, pointing out his understandably cool relations with the Russian government he once tried to overthrow. "If it were not for Khasbulatov, we could have solved this conflict a long time ago, and with less bloodshed," said Saligov.


"If the Russian goverment thinks Khasbulatov might be the Chechen leader, it might fight on Dudayev's side. If they could burn down their own parliament because of Khasbulatov, what would they do to Chechnya?" asked Saligov.