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Nine Russian Soldiers Dead in Chechnya
MOSCOW, July 20 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Nine Russian soldiers died as a military helicopter crashed in the breakaway republic of Chechnya, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, news agencies reported.
Five others were injured when the Mi-8 helicopter carrying interior ministry troops crashed near the village of Engenoy in the southeast of the republic, the ministry said.
The two pilots are reported to have survived.
The Interfax news agency cited a military spokesman as saying, without elaboration, that the cause of the incident had been established.
The debris lies in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains, a known hideout for Chechen fighters whom Russian forces have been fighting for nearly two years.
Wide-scale fighting ended more than a year ago, but Moscow's shaky control over most of the breakaway territory is punctured by almost daily small-scale clashes.
A recent series of violent operations by the Russian military to "mop up" Chechen fighters have been the subject of complaint by Chechens and many human rights' groups who accuse Russian troops of abusing and humiliating Chechens.
Six Russian servicemen are now being investigated for kidnapping, robbery and abuse of authority during operations in the Chechen villages of Assinovskaya, Sernovodsk and Kurchaloi, officials announced on Thursday.
Questions about the war and human rights abuses are expected to be raised at the annual Group of Eight (G8) meeting of the world's most powerful leaders in Genoa, Italy.
Before jetting to the G8 summit, President Vladimir Putin told a news conference that the violent Russian military action in Chechnya had put an end to what he described as lawlessness in the separatist republic fighting for independence.
"Say thank you to us for that at least," Putin said, quoted by new agencies.
Russian troops withdrew from Chechnya in humiliation after a 1994-96 war against Chechen separatists, but returned in October 1999 to attempt a further, more violent, crackdown on the Muslim ex-Soviet republic.
Meanwhile, the cause of an explosion at a gas pipeline near the Chechen border on Thursday night has been discovered as due to a technical malfunction, news agencies reported.
The initial cause was immediately blamed on a claimed "terrorist attack". The blast killed at least one person and injured six.
Police confirmed they do no not suspect foul play in the incident in southern Dagestan.
"There was no terrorist act. There was a technical malfunction, as a result of which gas escaped. One person died of burns and six received burns of various degrees," a police spokesman in Dagestan's regional capital Makhachkala announced.
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