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Fighting in North Caucusus

February 19, 2012

Some 17 Russian troops and at least seven insurgents have been killed in four days of fighting in the restive North Caucasus region in the deadliest unrest in the region in months.

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The silhouette of a solider walking
Image: AP

Seventeen police were killed and 24 wounded in a four-day battle with insurgents in the border between the Chechnya and Dagestan provinces in Russia's North Caucasus, Chechnya's Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov said Saturday.

State-run news agency RIA cited Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev as telling President Dmitry Medvedev that Russian troops had been ambushed while carrying out an operation. They had reportedly been using combat helicopters and artillery in a surge against at least 30 gunmen hiding in the heavily forested hills.

At least seven alleged insurgents were also reported to have been killed in a Russian operation to wipe out Caucasus militants. Chechneya's Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on Friday that the insurgent group's leader was among the dead.

Russian forces fought have two wars against Chechen rebels, first in 1994-1996 and again in 1999. Fighting still persists in the Russian Caucasus more than a decade after the separatists were driven from power. The Islamic insurgents still carry out nearly daily attacks in the region. Rights groups say heavy-handed police tactics fuel the insurgency.

Rebels based in the mostly Muslim North Caucasus have also struck with suicide bombings in Moscow, including a blast that killed 37 people at Russia's busiest airport in January 2011.

ccp/msh (AFP, AP, Reuters)