MOZDOK, April 27 (AVN) - A federal group for elimination of illegal refineries has come under assault rifle fire in the vicinity of Chechnya's Mesker-Yurt, the temporary press service of the Russian Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus said on Thursday.
In the past 24 hours, federal checkpoints have come under fire 13 times, the spokesman told the Military News Agency. The federals returned fire five times, he added.
A total of 30 preventive and search operations was held in Chechnya on Wednesday, the spokesman continued. A hiding place with grenades and cartridges was exposed in the western outskirts of the Lermontov-Yurt village. Four grenade launchers were seized from a resident of Kurchaloi.
Besides, the federals exposed a former guard of the Chechen interior minister currently residing in the Zandak village who was illegally keeping an assault rifle and a stock of cartridges.
The police have destroyed 33 illegal oil refineries in Chechnya in the past 24 hours.