Police killed in Chechnya blast

Russian vehicles remain a favourite target for rebel attacks

MOSCOW, Russia -- Six Russian police have been killed in Chechnya by a remote-controlled bomb detonated under their armoured vehicle by rebels.

Interfax quoted the office of Russia's commandant in the Chechen capital Grozny as saying the armoured personnel carrier was bringing up the rear of a four-vehicle column in the Staropromyslovsky district on Friday when the bomb went off.

Nine others were injured in the blast.

Eleven other soldiers were wounded during a shootout on Friday when Russian troops clashed with a group of rebels in the Vedeno region south-east of Grozny after a convoy including six armoured personnel carriers and an anti-aircraft gun came under fire, the news agency reported.

It quoted the military saying three of the attackers were killed in the gun battle.

The incidents followed a string of similar attacks over the past weeks in which a dozen policemen were killed in the war-ravaged province.

Twenty months into its Chechen campaign, Moscow has established shaky control over the territory but the use of force has alienated many ordinary Chechens, who often lend support to guerrillas launching daily attacks against troops and police.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday urged officials in charge of rebuilding Chechnya to speed up construction work to allow thousands of refugees to return to the republic from camps in neighbouring Ingushetia.

What Russia calls an anti-terrorist operation in largely Muslim Chechnya has claimed the lives of thousands of its soldiers since 1999. Thousands of civilians and Chechen separatists have also have been killed.

Russian forces were chased out of Grozny by the rebels in the 1994-96 war. The rebels were forced out in 1999 in a Russian offensive.

Despite having controlled Chechnya for months, Russian forces have been unable to stop attacks by small bands of rebels.