ROSTOV-ON-DON/KHANKALA. June 18 (Interfax-AVN) - Federal troops resumed steps in southwestern Chechnya early Friday morning to surround and eliminate the remaining members of a rebel group that had tried to enter the village of Orekhovo in the republic's Achkhoi-Martan district on Thursday.
Senior Achkhoi-Martan police officer Sharip Kurayev told Interfax that on Thursday morning, this rebel group planted two landmines outside Orekhovo and attacked a reconnaissance unit. The rebels also set fire to the local administration building, the regional headquarters of the counter-terrorist operation said.
Achkhoi-Martan police units and federal troops killed five rebels and forced the rest of them to flee into a nearby forest, Kurayev said. The area surrounding Orekhovo village is being searched, he said.
Two federal servicemen were killed and another two injured in the clash, Kurayev said.
A total of 12 rebels have been killed near Avtury in the Shali district since the beginning of the week, the regional headquarters said.
Another two rebels were found dead outside Avtury on Thursday. They are believed to have been killed as a result of clashes between rebel groups.
Several dozen rebels tried to enter Avtury on Monday. Some of them were killed in an armed clash with the Chechen presidential security service.