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Gunmen attack convoy in Chechnya; agencies report at least eight killed
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - Gunmen attacked a two-car convoy carrying security forces in Chechnya on Tuesday and news reports said at least eight people were killed.
Vladimir Gerasin, a regional spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry, said a car and a minibus carrying either Defence Ministry or Interior Ministry troops were travelling outside the village of Znamenskoye when assailants attacked.
The forces returned fire and called for reinforcements, and then the vehicles exploded, Gerasin said. He said between eight and 15 troops were wounded, but did not have any immediate information on deaths.
A regional spokesman for the Interior Ministry said at least two were killed and seven wounded. He said the two cars carried officers and riot police.
However, Russian news agencies reported that at least eight people had been killed in the attack. News reports cited anonymous local officials as saying that civilians were among the victims.
A truck-bomb attack on a government compound in Znamenskoye in May 2003 killed at least 60 people.
Znamenskoye is in northwestern Chechnya, a region that has been under the control of Russian forces since the first months of the second Chechen war, and there have been relatively few attacks in that area since.
Russian forces had withdrawn from Chechnya in 1996 when the first war against separatist rebels ended in a stalemate, but returned in 1999. The forces took quick control of Chechnya's north, but have been unable to drive rebels from the mountainous south.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050719/w071918.html
Ten people have been reportedly killed and at lease five wounded in a vehicle blast in Chechnya.
The region's pro-Moscow administration said the explosion took place in the Znamenskoye settlement, about 60km northwest of the regional capital Grozny on Tuesday.
The administration spokesman said a police jeep first came under fire, then was blown up near a school.
"According to preliminary information, two of the dead are policemen and the rest could be local people," said the spokesman.
Moscow has been trying for years to crush violence in Chechnya by separatists.
Russian troops and other pro-Moscow forces control most of the territory and in March killed separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov.
But isolated attacks have continued and even spread beyond Chechnya's borders to the neighbouring regions.
President Vladimir Putin last week visited the Dagestan region, which neighbours Chechnya, where he called on ministers and commanders to double their efforts to stop the violence.
Reuters
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FDBB0B40-6625-4645-A9CE-39C0533FEC3E.htm
The forces returned fire and called for reinforcements, and then the vehicles exploded, Gerasin said. He said between eight and 15 troops were wounded, but did not have any immediate information on deaths.
A regional spokesman for the Interior Ministry said at least two were killed and seven wounded. He said the two cars carried officers and riot police.
However, Russian news agencies reported that at least eight people had been killed in the attack. News reports cited anonymous local officials as saying that civilians were among the victims.
A truck-bomb attack on a government compound in Znamenskoye in May 2003 killed at least 60 people.
Znamenskoye is in northwestern Chechnya, a region that has been under the control of Russian forces since the first months of the second Chechen war, and there have been relatively few attacks in that area since.
Russian forces had withdrawn from Chechnya in 1996 when the first war against separatist rebels ended in a stalemate, but returned in 1999. The forces took quick control of Chechnya's north, but have been unable to drive rebels from the mountainous south.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050719/w071918.html
Ten people have been reportedly killed and at lease five wounded in a vehicle blast in Chechnya.
The region's pro-Moscow administration said the explosion took place in the Znamenskoye settlement, about 60km northwest of the regional capital Grozny on Tuesday.
The administration spokesman said a police jeep first came under fire, then was blown up near a school.
"According to preliminary information, two of the dead are policemen and the rest could be local people," said the spokesman.
Moscow has been trying for years to crush violence in Chechnya by separatists.
Russian troops and other pro-Moscow forces control most of the territory and in March killed separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov.
But isolated attacks have continued and even spread beyond Chechnya's borders to the neighbouring regions.
President Vladimir Putin last week visited the Dagestan region, which neighbours Chechnya, where he called on ministers and commanders to double their efforts to stop the violence.
Reuters
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/FDBB0B40-6625-4645-A9CE-39C0533FEC3E.htm
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Officials said a police car was blown up in Znamenskoye, about 60km (37 miles) north of the capital, Grozny, after an exchange of gun fire.
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov has blamed the attack on separatist rebels led by Shamil Basayev, Russian news agency Itar-Tass reports.
The region around Znamenskoye is under the control of Russian forces.
In 2003 a truck bomb outside a government compound in Znamenskoye killed at least 60 people and injured many more.
Isolated attacks
Security forces in the town are hunting for those responsible for the explosion at about 1330 (0930 GMT) on Tuesday, Itar-Tass says.
The agency quotes Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, speaking in Znamenskoye, as saying 13 people died in the blast and about were 20 wounded.
Police officers and local residents are said to be among those killed. A child who was cycling past when the vehicle exploded also died, the AP news agency quoted Russian officials as saying.
Correspondents say that although Russian forces control most of Chechnya, isolated rebel attacks have continued and even spread to neighbouring regions.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin last week visited the southern Russian region of Dagestan, where he urged ministers and commanders to take action to halt violence.
At least 10 people were killed in a bomb attack on a truck carrying security forces near the Dagestani capital, Makhachkala, earlier this month.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4696539.stm