CHECHYNA: Gunmen killed at least six Russian soldiers and wounded about 20 yesterday in the deadliest rebel attack in Chechnya for weeks, local media said.
News agencies quoted a defence ministry spokesman as saying the soldiers' column of armoured personnel carriers and jeeps was 500m outside the village of Avtury when the rebels attacked with grenade launchers.
A rebel website (www.daymohk.org) reported that the attack, 30km (18 miles) southeast of regional capital Grozny, was revenge for the mid-June killing of their separatist leader.
Chechnya has been the scene of bitter fighting since 1994, when the Kremlin sent troops to crush its self-declared independence.
After suffering defeat, Russian troops poured back into the mountainous region in 1999. Since then, the Kremlin has largely subdued the rebels, given power to loyalist Chechens and now likes to present the war as over.
"There are no more military operations in Chechnya, just outbursts of terrorism," President Vladimir Putin told a conference of non-governmental organisations yesterday.
Russian losses in Chechnya are far lighter than in the periods 1994-1996 and 1999-2000, but rebel attacks are frequent and several police and soldiers die every week.
In recent years, the war has evolved into a general Islamist uprising linked to other regions along Russia's mountainous southern border.
The last attack as deadly as yesterday's was in mid-May, when six other soldiers were killed .