KHANKALA/MOSCOW. Sept 28 (Interfax-AVN) - The regional headquarters of the anti-guerilla operation in the North Caucasus has confirmed that a special operation to stamp out a militant group is underway in the mountains of eastern Chechnya.
"Special steps have been taken since Monday afternoon to encircle and eliminate a militant group in the woods between Alleroi and Meskhety," the headquarters' spokesman Major General Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Tuesday.
"The bodies of three militants have been discovered. Two servicemen have died and nine received wounds of varying gravity," he said.
The forces at the scene are sufficient to wipe out the group and the operation is continuing, he said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the republic's Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov told Interfax by telephone that over 20 militants had been killed. Kadyrov, who is also Chechen presidential security chief, was calling from the scene, where he was overseeing the operation. He said eighteen servicemen from the security service and the police patrol regiment were wounded and taken to hospital.
At the Chechen Interior Ministry, Interfax was told that acting Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov is also at the scene coordinating the operation with Kadyrov and federal officials.