5,000 Russian soldiers died in Chechnya last year - report

Almost 5,000 Russian soldiers were killed in the breakaway republic of Chechnya last year and more than 13,000 were wounded, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted military officials as saying today in the first apparent acknowledgement of high casualties in the near 3 1/2-year-old conflict.

The casualty figures released to the state agency by the North Caucasus Military District were much higher than previous official data on losses during the war.