Seven Russians killed in Chechnya clashes

Seven Russian servicemen have been killed in land mine explosions and clashes with rebels in Chechnya over the past 24 hours.

Three soldiers were killed and 14 were wounded in when Chechen rebels attacks Russian positions and checkpoints 19 times since Saturday.

Most of the attacks took place in the capital Grozny, said an official in Chechnya's pro-Russian administration.

Another soldier was killed on Saturday and two were wounded when insurgents opened fire on a military jeep in Grozny, the official said.

Two soldiers were killed Saturday and four were wounded in a firefight with rebels after their military column had stopped after detonating a land mine near the village of Alkhan-Yurt, eight miles west of Grozny, the official said.

Several rebels were killed in the clash, the Interfax news agency said.

In the Vedeno region of southern Chechnya, a Russian sapper was killed and one was seriously injured when an explosive device they were attempting to defuse exploded, the official said.

Russian warplanes bombed suspected rebel bases in the Vedeno and Shali regions in southern Chechnya and the Itum-Kale region on the Georgian border, the official said. Russian artillery fired on bases in Vedeno and Nozhai-Yurt on the eastern border.

After suffering a humiliating defeat in the first 1996-98 Chechen war, federal forces rolled back into the breakaway republic in September 1999 after rebel incursions into neighbouring Dagestan and deadly apartment explosions in Russia that were blamed on the rebels.