MOSCOW, Aug 23 (AFP) - Chechens marked the birthday of their murdered leader Monday, days ahead of an election to replace him at the helm of the Caucasus republic where a five-year guerrilla war shows no signs of dying down.
The ceremonies came a day after Chechen rebels staged a brazen raid in Grozny that served as a potent reminder that the war Moscow launched in October 1999 was simmering unabated.
Akhmad Kadyrov, a mufti and former rebel, was killed in an explosion in Chechnya`s capital Grozny on May 9, less than a year after he assumed the republic`s top post in a disputed poll.
A day after President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to Chechnya to lay flowers on Kadyrov`s grave, Moscow city authorities unveiled a plaque in his honor at the building housing the offices of the Chechen government in the capital.
Top officials in the Chechen government laid flowers beneath the plaque before gathering at a hotel in central Moscow to mark the day on which Kadyrov would have turned 53.
In Chechnya itself, a similar plaque was unveiled on a street in Grozny and a Kadyrov museum opened its doors in the republic`s second city of Gudermes.
Meanwhile authorities said they would pay 5,000 rubles (172 dollars) to the families of children born on August 23 and 10,000 rubles to families of newborn boys named Akhmad.
By mid afternoon, Russian news agencies reported that four babies had been born in Chechnya, including one boy who had been named Akhmad, a common name in the republic.
The memorials took place a day after rebels staged attacks in Grozny that appeared much better organized than originally reported by the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities, the Russian military and news agencies who presented it as a localized exchange with a band of separatists.
According to witnesses on the ground and reports in Moscow newspapers citing local sources, coordinated rebel units simultaneously attacked state targets -- checkpoints, police and polling stations -- throughout Grozny around 8:00 pm (1600 GMT).
"We had fighting throughout the city well into the night," one law enforcement official who participated in holding off the attacks told AFP by telephone.
"We haven`t had fighting like that in a while," said a civilian resident of Grozny of the most daring rebel attack on the Chechen capital in at least a year.
There were contradictory reports of casualties. Russia`s unified command did not say how many pro-Moscow forces were killed, but said it had found bodies of eight separatists.
In an announcement posted on their kavkazcenter.com website, the rebels claimed to have killed up to 50.
In reports immediately after the fighting, Russian news agencies said up to 16 civilians had been killed.
The witnesses and Moscow media accounts said the rebels withdrew around midnight, a move starkly similar to a rebel raid that took place in Chechnya`s eastern neighbor Ingushetia in June.
In those attacks, several hundred rebels attacked state targets throughout the night, killing nearly 90 people, mostly law enforcement officials, before melting away at dawn.
Chechnya holds an election to replace Kadyrov on August 29. Alu Alkhanov, a 47-year-old whom Kadyrov named interior minister in October 2003 has received expressions of support from the Kremlin and was considered the overwhelming favorite.