Russian troops kill boys at checkpoint

Russian troops in Chechnya shot dead three 13-year-old boys after they drove through a checkpoint without stopping, an official said today.

The boys were driving a car belonging to one of their fathers when they failed to stop at a checkpoint in the Oktyabrsky district of the Chechen capital, Grozny.

The troops followed them in an armoured personnel carrier and fired at them, said an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration.

Chechnya’s many checkpoints are a constant source of tension between the military and the civilian population, which say they severely restrict freedom of movement.

Residents say soldiers demand bribes to allow people or cars to pass and often detain men and boys who cannot pay on suspicion of being rebels.

Also yesterday in the same part of Grozny, a bomb exploded as an army jeep carrying Chechen policemen passed, the official said.

Four police officers were killed, and 18 people in the area, including university students, police and soldiers, were injured.