MOSCOW, Aug 24 (AFP) - Attacks by rebels in Chechnya last weekend resulted in the deaths of 42 people, 30 of them Russian servicemen and the remainder local civilians, a top medical official said Tuesday in the Chechen capital, Grozny.
"Thirty soldiers and policemen were killed" along with 12 civilians in the attacks overnight Saturday, said Umar Akhiadov, heads of the pro-Russian Chechen emergency medical center.
It was the first official admission from the Russian side that they had sustained heavy losses in the attacks, and also marked a rare acknowledgement of civilian deaths in the conflict in Chechnya.
Russian forces meanwhile claimed to have killed 62 separatist fighters since Saturday.
Interfax news agency quoted Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for Russian forces in the north Caucasus, as saying "pinpoint strikes" against rebel units were continuing around Grozny.
His claim of 62 rebel deaths could not be verified independently.
The surge in violence came five days before voters in the war-torn republic head to the polls for an election in which Alu Alkhanov, Chechnya's current interior minister who has received the Kremlin's public support, was considered likely to win.
The election Sunday was called to choose a successor to Akhmad Kadyrov, the late Chechen leader who was killed May 9 in an explosion.
Russian troops entered Chechnya on October 1, 1999, the start of the second war there in a decade. There are currently some 70,000 Russian soldiers based in the republic.