Federal officer killed in rebel attack on convoy in Chechnya

KHANKALA. Oct 22 (Interfax-AVN) - A rebel gang attacked an army convoy near the Chechen village of Gikalovsky at about 14.30 Moscow time (1030 GMT) on Sunday, a spokesman for the unified federal headquarters told Interfax-Military News Agency.

The convoy was heading from Itum-Kale to the Grozny suburb of Khankala to get defence material, the spokesman said. Having blasted a radio-controlled explosive device, the guerrillas fired a hail of small-arms bullets on the federal vehicles.

The blast damaged a KamAZ truck, killing the vehicle's senior officer and badly wounding its driver.