14:49, 5 January 2006

Several killed in Chechnya

Two servicemen of the Internal Affairs Ministry's interior troops were killed in a shooting at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Kurchaloi, Chechnya.

Late on Monday, 2 January, unidentified persons fired automatic weapons at a unit of interior troops servicemen who were examining vehicles at the checkpoint. Two contract servicemen died of sustained wounds, the local District Division of Internal Affairs told Interfax.

The Chechen separatist website Kavkaz-Center says that eight military men have been killed in the Vedeno and Shali districts. Three military men, an officer and two contract soldiers, were wounded in a combat with a group of rebels in the Vedeno district. The separatists also confirm the information about the shooting at the checkpoint noting that two servicemen were killed and four wounded.

On the night of 1 January, six police officers and interior troops servicemen were wounded as a result of blasts and shootings in the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, a source in the federal headquarters in the North Caucasus told RIA Novosti.