VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia - Fighting between pro-Moscow forces and separatists in war-torn Chechnya has left six people dead and five injured on the Russian side in the past 24 hours, a local government official said Monday.
In one incident, one Russian soldier died and two others were injured after their jeep blew up near the village of Tsa-Vedeno, which lies in the rebels' stronghold in the southern mountains, said the official in Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, on condition of anonymity.
Two Russian sappers died when they tried to defuse an explosive device near the village of Chechen-Aul, south of Grozny, and a Chechen policeman died and his partner was injured as a result of a mine explosion near the town of Sernovodsk in western Chechnya, he said.
Two troops died and two were injured in other attacks throughout the mountainous republic.
Separatists have been fighting pro-Russian forces in Chechnya for more than five years, the second such war in less than a decade.
04/04/2005 13:41 GMT