NAZRAN, Russia -- The recent foray by some 200 Chechen rebels into neighboring territory, sparking one of the largest battles ever in the three-year Chechen war, has highlighted the Russian military's weak hold on the restive region.

The fighting erupted last Thursday when federal troops spotted a rebel contingent near the village of Galashki in Russia's republic of Ingushetia, bordering Chechnya's west. In the ensuing battle, rebels killed 17 Russian soldiers, including a military helicopter crew, before fleeing 12 miles east toward Chechnya.

Lt. Gen. Valery Gerasimov, who commanded the Ingushetia operation, claimed Monday the rebels were defeated.

"The majority of rebels have been eliminated, and the rest are being searched for," Gerasimov said, adding that federal aircraft and artillery were barraging the forested mountains to prevent militants from breaking toward Chechnya.

But other military officials said some of the rebels had already been spotted in western Chechnya. And Col. Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the General Staff, said Monday that only 44 rebels were killed in Galashki -- leaving dozens unaccounted for.

Little help from Georgia

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov told President Vladimir Putin that the group of 200, which included foreign mercenaries, came from the lawless Pankisi Gorge in neighboring Georgia. He and other Russian officials said the raid underscored Georgia's inability -- or unwillingness -- to confront the rebels sheltering there.

In August, the Georgian government launched a police operation to uproot the militants. But Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze admitted that officials warned the fighters to leave rather than face Georgian troops in battle.

However, the latest rebel raid also spotlighted Russia's own shortcomings.

A top Russian prosecutor said last week that fighters crossed into Russia on Sept. 1 -- meaning they moved for more than three weeks through territory supposedly patrolled by thousands of Russian troops.