Rebels kill nine soldiers in Chechnya

Rebels ambushed a Russian military vehicle in southern Chechnya, killing nine soldiers and wounding five, a Chechen administration official said today.

The soldiers were travelling in a heavy Kamaz truck when they hit a remote-controlled land mine in the Shatoi region of southern Chechnya on Saturday evening, the official said.

Rebels then ambushed the vehicle, launching grenades and firing automatic weapons at the truck, the official said.

The truck of sappers had been at the head of a military convoy returning to base through the mountains of southern Chechnya where many rebels shelter and through which many supply routes run, according to Russian news reports.

Russian troops have been bogged down in Chechnya since 1999 when they returned to the republic following rebel raids on a neighbouring Russian region and a series of deadly apartment-house bombings in Russian cities that were blamed on the Chechnya.