KHANKALA. Oct 4 (Interfax-AVN) - Several rebel groups comprising 10 to 15 people fired small arms and mortars at federal units that convoyed columns of the central supply department near the Tsa-Vedeno and Khatuni villages of Chechnya on Wednesday, a spokesman for the unified federal headquarters said.
Federals returned fire, dispersing the attackers and wounding three of them, the spokesman told Interfax-Military News Agency. Two AKM assault rifles, Wahhabi literature and foreign uniform sets were found at the site.
A rebel group manned by Arab mercenaries has been registered in the village of Shali, the spokesman added. The group is preparing a terrorist act against the local military prosecutor's office.
Small rebel groups are operating in Grozny. They collect information on federal stationing areas and activities. Five people were detained during an ID-check in the Starpromyslovky district of the city on Wednesday and two of them admitted that they had been collecting information about federal units' location, a spokesman for the police department for Chechnya said.
Federals seized from locals 23 pieces of small arms, 34 grenade launchers including home-made ones, some 15,000 cartridges, 15 hunting rifles and almost 30kg of explosives.