Chechen rebels killed in clash with Russian troops

Russian troops clashed with rebels in southern Chechnya, killing five, including a Turkish citizen, a federal spokesman said today.

The insurgents were spotted late yesterday near the village of Serzhen-Yurt, some 22 miles south-east of the Chechen capital, Grozny, said a spokesman for federal troops in Chechnya, Maj.-Gen. Ilya Shabalkin.

In a statement broadcast by Russian television stations, Shabalkin said that one of the five militants killed in the ensuing battle had a passport identifying him as Turkish citizen Umac Hasan, 24. The group of rebels probably included at least one other Turk, Shabalkin said.

Russian forces were today still searching for rebels who managed to escape after the battle, Shabalkin said.

The fighting near Serzhen-Yurt followed other clashes yesterday.

In Grozny, unidentified gunmen killed a Russian soldier and three law enforcement officers, and in the neighbouring province of Ingushetia, federal troops clashed with another group of Chechen rebels.