The Security Council congratulated Defense Minister Pavel Grachev on "completion of the military operation" in Chechnya on Wednesday, as Russian forces redoubled their bombardment of southern parts of the capital Grozny.


Interfax reported that the 14-member Security Council, President Boris Yeltsin's main decision-making body during the crisis, had congratulated Grachev for completing the military operation in Chechnya, which began last Dec. 11.


Security Council Secretary Oleg Lobov said at a press conference after the meeting that Grachev was officially handing over control of the operation to specialized Interior Ministry forces. Overall command of the operation will pass from Grachev to one of the deputy interior ministers, he said.


Lobov said the army would remain in Chechnya, but in a supporting role, and would be called on to deal with any resistance from heavy weapons.


The Security Council secretary also revealed that Nationalities Minister Nikolai Yegorov, who is Yeltsin's special "representative" to Chechnya, will be replaced by another minister while he is in the hospital recovering from pneumonia.


Yeltsin had announced last Thursday that "the military stage of the restoration of the Russian constitution is effectively over," although the fighting -- most of it conducted by army units -- has continued unabated as Russian troops have strained to assert control over even the center of the city.


A CNN reporter just south of Grozny said in mid-afternoon there was a "heavy, heavy bombardment" going on, which sounded as though the Russians were making a push to conquer the rest of the Chechen capital. He said scores of people were trying to flee the city.


Both Reuters and The Associated Press said Grozny's southern suburbs were being pounded by heavy artillery and tank fire.


AP said Russian firepower was concentrated on residential neighborhoods, where the Chechens did not have major positions. The village of Alkhan-Kala, located on a key road south of Grozny, was also shelled heavily.


Chechen forces fought back, shooting down two Russian helicopters flying toward Grozny and killing both three-man crews, Itar-Tass reported.


At the Russian military base at Mozdok in North Ossetia, Russia poured in fresh troops and ammunition with a constant stream of planes and helicopters landing, the agency said.


Security Council secretary Lobov, in Moscow, said he knew nothing about the bombardment. He said for a third day running Russian forces were only returning fire and "there has not been active military offensive action" in Chechnya. Lobov said the city was "two-thirds" in Russian hands.


Though the contours are murky, there appeared to be a change of guard in the Security Council following the transfer from Grachev of overall control over the Chechen operation.


NTV television reported that Oleg Soskovets, the hawkish first deputy prime minister, had been invited to the Security Council. But it also said that Yeltsin's liberal national security adviser, Yury Baturin, who has been kept out of meetings since the beginning of the crisis, had been invited back.


Lobov said Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin addressed the second half of the meeting on the economic and political future for Chechnya.


Lobov said that in his view it would be possible to hold elections in Chechnya by the end of the year, although troops were likely to remain there for years to come.


He treated journalists to a typically upbeat assessment of the Kremlin's drawn-out efforts to "disarm illegal bands," telling the press conference that the conflict in Chechnya was "not a war."


"Blood is flowing and it is possible to call it a war, but from a legal point of view it is not a war," Lobov said.


He also said that there was a "profit" side to the Chechen war and that the losses to the budget sustained by the military operation, estimated at 3 trillion to 5 trillion rubles ($750 million to $1.25 billion) would be offset by the investment in industry there.


Lobov said Yeltsin had proposed a commission to investigate Chechnya, which would study the period "from the end of the 1980s" to the present day. Lobov said he himself was most likely to be put in charge of the commission.


The commission is likely to clash head-on with a parliamentary commission with the same function headed by film director Stanislav Govorukhin. The commission said Wednesday it hoped to interview everyone involved in Chechen policy in the last few years, including former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and Yeltsin.