Ten Russian soldiers killed in latest Chechnya fighting

Ten Russian soldiers died in the latest fighting in Chechnya, official said today.

The deaths came in skirmishes with rebels and in mine explosions.

Russian checkpoints were attacked 12 times in the past day, killing four soldiers and injuring six, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said.

Troops clashed with rebels in a district of the capital Grozny, leaving two soldiers dead and one injured. Two other attacks on military vehicles killed four soldiers and wounded one.

The Kremlin says the war in Chechnya is over and the rebels defeated, but Russia loses soldiers daily in the southern province in small-scale attacks.

More than 160 suspects were detained in the past 24 hours in sweep operations in which Russian troops search for rebel sympathisers among the civilian population.

Rebels forced Russian troops out of Chechnya after a 1994-96 war. The soldiers returned in 1999 after rebels raided a neighbouring Russian region and were blamed for a series of apartment explosions.