Three Russian troops were killed and five wounded in rebel attacks in southern Chechnya, ITAR-TASS reported Wednesday citing the federal command.
A soldier was killed, and another seriously wounded when rebels ambushed a federal convoy late Monday in the southwest Achkhoi-Martan district of the war-torn republic, the agency quoted the Russian military as saying.
The separatist fighters attacked a column of interior ministry troops that was travelling on the Kavkaz federal highway near the village of Asinovskaya, the same source said.
Two Russian policemen were killed and four others wounded late Tuesday when Chechen fighters attacked another section of the same highway, near the so-called Samashkinsky forest, the Russian security service (FSB, formerly KGB) told ITAR-TASS.
A senior pro-Moscow Chechen official, meanwhile, was killed in Chechnya's southern Vedeno district, Interfax reported citing the Chechen interior ministry.
Shaa Meshiyev, 80, head of the district's pension fund, died in an attack near the village of Duishno-Vedeno, officials said, without specifying when the ambush took place.
Chechen rebels fighting Moscow's troops for the past 18 months in the secessionist territory regularly target pro-Russian local officials, accusing them of being "collaborators." -- MOSCOW (AFP)
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