Gunmen launch attacks on police, soldiers in Russia's Caucasus region, killing 3
1:00 AM
Posted: Friday, August 24, 2007
MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) -- Gunmen ambushed security forces in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, killing three people and wounding 17, officials said Thursday.
A convoy of elite police forces came under fire near the entrance to a highway tunnel in Dagestan on Thursday, leaving two dead, said Mark Tolchinsky, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in the province east of war-scarred Chechnya.
Twelve people were hospitalized with injuries, but five were released later Thursday, said Kazanfar Kurbanov, chief doctor at a local hospital.
In Ingushetia, west of Chechnya, one serviceman was killed and five were wounded late Wednesday when gunmen attacked their armored personnel carrier with grenades and automatic weapons fire, the regional Interior Ministry said.
The attack took place as the troops were returning to their base near Nazran, Ingushetia's principal city, a ministry statement said.
Major fighting has died down in Chechnya since the second war started in 1999 and the separatists were driven from power, but the mostly Muslim region is plagued by rebel attacks as well as violence blamed on federal troops and forces of the Moscow-backed Chechen government.
Nearby regions have also been affected by increasing violence, some of it stemming from feuds between criminal gangs and some spilling over from Chechnya.
A convoy of elite police forces came under fire near the entrance to a highway tunnel in Dagestan on Thursday, leaving two dead, said Mark Tolchinsky, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in the province east of war-scarred Chechnya.
Twelve people were hospitalized with injuries, but five were released later Thursday, said Kazanfar Kurbanov, chief doctor at a local hospital.
In Ingushetia, west of Chechnya, one serviceman was killed and five were wounded late Wednesday when gunmen attacked their armored personnel carrier with grenades and automatic weapons fire, the regional Interior Ministry said.
The attack took place as the troops were returning to their base near Nazran, Ingushetia's principal city, a ministry statement said.
Major fighting has died down in Chechnya since the second war started in 1999 and the separatists were driven from power, but the mostly Muslim region is plagued by rebel attacks as well as violence blamed on federal troops and forces of the Moscow-backed Chechen government.
Nearby regions have also been affected by increasing violence, some of it stemming from feuds between criminal gangs and some spilling over from Chechnya.
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