CHECHNYA: A fresh wave of separatist violence hit Russia's Chechnya yesterday when a landmine blasted a convoy carrying its interim leader and elite security forces said they lost 18 men in a battle with rebels.
News reports said a bodyguard was killed when the mine struck a motorcade carrying the pro-Moscow acting president, Sergei Abramov, through the devastated regional capital, Grozny.
Mr Abramov, who took over after President Akhmad Kadyrov was killed by a bomb on May 9th, was travelling at high speed in an armoured car and escaped injury. Interfax said two other members of Abramov's staff were hurt.
"I am alive. Everything is all right," Abramov told First Channel television about 90 minutes after the blast.
Agencies also quoted local officials as saying Chechnya's elite security force lost 18 soldiers in their heaviest fighting in a year with insurgents in a village south of Grozny.
The upsurge of violence showed that though Chechen guerrillas can not mount prolonged large-scale operations against Russian forces, they can still carry out effective hit-and-run attacks on specific targets.
A former prime minister of Chechnya, Mr Abramov (32), was thrust into the top job when Mr Kadyrov was killed in a bomb attack during public celebrations.
Elections for a new president are being held on August 29th, though, Mr Abramov is not standing.
His convoy had been returning from an inspection of construction sites of buildings shattered in Russia's second post-Soviet attempt to crush separatism, launched in 1999.
In reports on the overnight fighting at Avtury, about 35 km south of Grozny, Mr Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, said 18 members of the force he heads had been killed. - (Reuters)