KHANKALA. May 26 (Interfax-AVN) - Seven rebels were killed in Chechnya on Wednesday morning, bringing the total number of rebels killed over the past 24 hours to 18.
"A total of 18 rebels have been killed by federal forces since Tuesday evening," Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the regional headquarters of the anti-guerilla operation in the North Caucasus, told Interfax.
"The operations primarily center on the mountains in southern Chechnya," Shabalkin said.
Of the 11 rebels killed in the republic on Tuesday, five were killed on a road linking the villages of Gikalo and Mesker- Yurt, the spokesman said.
No reports on federal troops' casualties have been made available yet.
A group of five rebels has been spotted near the village of Benoi in the Vedeno district. "Two rebels were killed in an armed clash. No identification was found on them," the spokesman said, adding that another rebel group was discovered in a forest outside the village of Dargo in the Vedeno district.
"Since the rebels were at a considerable distance and could not be reached with rifle fire, MI-24 Hind helicopter gunships were used to eliminate them. From an examination of the area, the human remains suggest that four rebels were killed," Shabalkin said.
The spokesman said that reports that three servicemen traveling aboard one of the MI-24 helicopters were injured are not true. A bullet only hit the helicopter's window, he said.