KHANKALA, August 23 (AVN) - Chechen rebels made two blasts and attacked police and Interior Ministry units 11 times on Wednesday, killing a policeman and six servicemen and injuring three policemen and 13 servicemen, a spokesman for the ministry's department for Chechnya told the Military News Agency.
A landmine blasted on a tree near the road where a column comprising an APC and a GAZ ruck was riding 2km from the Starogladkovskaya village of the Shali district. After that rebels started firing flame-throwers, grenade launchers and automatic guns at the vehicles. As a result five people died and nine were wounded.
Extremists fired automatic guns at the MI-26 Halo and MI-24 Hind helicopters going from Khankala to Gudermes 5km north-east to the Oktyabrskoye village in the Grozny rural district. The MI-26 helicopter's navigator, aged 34, was injured though both helicopters managed to reach the destination.
Besides, rebels fired grenade launchers at a column consisting of an APC and two trucks with policemen in the Zavodskoy district of Grozny, killed one police officer and wounded another.
According to the spokesman, the police carried out 11 search and preventive operations in the breakaway republic on Wednesday. They checked 22,154 people, 12,478 vehicles, and registered 436 administrative offences, including 135 violations of passport rules.
Policemen seized 11 grenade launchers, a machine-gun, three assault rifles, a hunting rifle, 10 artillery and mortar shells, 42 grenades and grenade launcher rounds and 4,815 small-arms cartridges. Besides, 13 illegal oil refineries and three makeshift explosive devices were eliminated.