Chechnya violence kills 10 Russia troops, 9 militants
Iran Press TV
Thu Dec 4, 2014 12:52PM GMT
The death toll from a militant attack in the Chechen capital city of Grozny has risen to 19, including 10 police officers.
The gunbattles broke out early Thursday when militants traveling in three cars entered the city, killing three traffic police at a checkpoint, security officials said.
According to the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, the militants then stormed into the 10-storey Press House in central Grozny, which was later demolished by fire, leaving six gunmen dead.
More militants reportedly holed up in a nearby school and security forces were deployed to "liquidate" them. However, as Russian media reported no students or teachers were in the three-storey school when it was captured by the gunmen.
Russian state television released video of security officers firing automatic weapons and grenade launchers at the school.
"We have found the bodies of nine (militants), but they (the security officers) are continuing to search," the Interfax news agency quoted Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov as saying.
In October, five soldiers were killed and 12 others injured in a bomb attack outside a concert hall in Grozny.
Russia's southern Republic of Chechnya, along with neighboring Dagestan and Ingushetia, has been facing unrest recently.
Violence erupted in the volatile Republic of Chechnya in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The republic has witnessed two brutal wars between Chechen separatists and the Russian army in the 1990s and early 2000s.
MR/HMV/KA
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