Russian death toll grows in Chechnya

At least eight Russian servicemen have been killed and another 16 wounded in the latest rebel raids and land mine explosions in Chechnya.

Five federal soldiers have died and another seven have been wounded in rebel attacks on military outposts throughout Chechnya in the past 24 hours, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said.

In a separate clash yesterday near the village of Uluskert in the southern Shali region, rebels ambushed a military convoy, killing two federal troops and wounding another five, the official said.

Another two federal servicemen were wounded in a clash with rebels in the Vedeno region in Chechnya’s southern mountains early today, he said. The military killed one rebel and took another one prisoner in the clash, the official added.

And in the Chechen capital, Grozny, a federal soldier was killed and his two comrades were wounded by a rebel land mine on Tuesday.

Russian troops pulled out of Chechnya following a disastrous 1994-96 war against separatist rebels that killed tens of thousands of people and left the mostly Muslim region de facto independent and largely lawless.

They returned in September 1999 after militants based in Chechnya launched armed incursions into a neighbouring province and after some 300 people died in apartment bombings which the Kremlin blamed on the rebels.