Russian soldiers killed by Chechen rebels

Four Russian servicemen were killed in rebel attacks and a clash with insurgents in Chechnya yesterday.

Two soldiers were killed and four were wounded when rebels staged 10 attacks on Russian positions and outposts, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said.

Two others were killed and five were wounded in a clash with rebels near the village of Bamut, 35 miles south west of the capital Grozny. One rebel was killed.

Two soldiers died and two were wounded in Grozny when their military bus detonated a landmine and two others were killed and two were wounded after a mine exploded under their armoured personnel carrier in the town of Shali, 16 miles south east of the capital.

Russian officials have claimed that the rebels are on the verge of defeat, but they inflict Russian casualties daily with hit-and-run attacks and mine explosions.

At least 180 Chechens were detained over the past 24 hours in a number of sweep operations by federal troops in Grozny and its suburbs, the official said.

Russian security sweeps in Chechnya have provoked allegations of widespread torture and killing of civilians. Russian officials say the operations are necessary to root out rebels and deny large-scale human rights abuses.

Federal forces killed six rebels in Chechnya as a result of the latest sweep operations, the Interfax news agency said today.

A Chechen police chief in the village of Kadi-Yurt in the Gudermes region has been arrested for complicity in rebel activities, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

It said Major Shamsudi Masarov had helped members of illegal armed groups, in particular issuing the gunmen fake passports in return for cash.

Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya in 1996 after a 20-month war with rebels ended in a standstill.

They swept in again in September 1999, following incursions by Chechnya-based insurgents into neighbouring Dagestan and after some 300 died in Moscow and other Russian cities in apartment bombings blamed on Chechen rebels.