A file photo of an Mi-8 military helicopter which was shot down by a missile in Chechnya

MOSCOW, August 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – While seven Russian servicemen were killed and at least nine others injured in two separate attacks in Chechnya and near its borders with Ingushetia, a Russian group said Friday, August 8, the Russian death toll in the nearly four-year invasion of Chechnya is almost triple the official figure.

Six Russian soldiers were killed and seven others injured when an armored vehicle came under heavy fire near Chechnya’s borders with the Caucasian republic of Ingushetia on Thursday, August 7.

The Russian forces were ambushed while returning from Grozny to their base across the Chechen border, local police officials said.

Police were combing the nearby forests for the attackers, who managed to escape the scene, the officials were quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.

It was not immediately clear whether the attackers were Chechen independence fighters who engage Russian troops on almost daily basis despite Moscow's claims the situation in Chechnya was coming under control.

The Russian military has been targeted in Ingushetia before. Five soldiers were killed when their convoy hit a mine last week.

Helicopter Downed

Also Thursday, a Russian Mi-8 military helicopter was shot down in Chechnya, killing one crew member and injuring two others, the Interfax news agency reported quoting military officials.

It was originally thought all three crew members had died instantly, but two men have now been rescued and evacuated to hospital with serious injuries.

Immediately after the crash a spokesman said the helicopter had been shot down by a shoulder-fired missile.

The helicopter was hit as it was landing troops in a wooded mountain area near the village of Dyshne-Vedeno in the southeast Chechnya, the spokesman for the Russian federal army headquarters said.

"It was hit by a missile fired from the ground," he said, adding that the troops had already left the helicopter when the missile hit, leaving just the crew aboard.

But the Russian military now suggest the crew may simply have crashed in poor weather, the BBC NewsOnline reported.

Russian military helicopters have regularly been the target of attacks by Chechen independence fighters since 1999.

Some 50 Russian servicemen and medics were killed and 78 injured Friday when a man rammed a truck packed with explosives through the gates of a military hospital stationed in the neighboring republic of North Ossetia.

Triple Toll

In a related development, a respected Russian group said that more than 12,000 soldiers have died in the nearly four-year invasion in Chechnya, almost triple the officially disclosed figure.

The Soldiers' Mothers Committee rights group said Friday, August 8, said the figures included soldiers who died on their way to a hospital or from injuries at a later date -- deaths that are not officially registered by the authorities.

The estimate suggests that on an average, nearly nine Russian soldiers have died daily since President Vladimir Putin launched the self-declared "anti-terror" campaign while still serving as prime minister in October 1999.

"Unfortunately, our way of counting the dead soldiers more closely corresponds to reality," Valentina Malnikova, a representative of the respected group, told Moscow Echo radio.

Russia rarely issues official toll statistics concerning the conflict, and when it does, the figures often contradict each other, according to AFP.

The latest official estimate puts the Russian toll at more than 4,500 dead and the Chechen fighters’ at about 15,000.

The Chechen civilian casualties have never been officially disclosed and rights groups fear the figure could stand in the thousands.

Basayev's Assets 'Frozen'

Washington claimed Basayev was a threat to its national security

Meanwhile, the U.S. on Friday designated Chechen leader Shamil Basayev a threat to U.S. national security and imposed financial sanctions on him, including a freeze on his assets.

Basayev "has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy or economy of the United States," Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed.

The blacklisting of Basayev under various executive orders signed by President George W. Bush in response to the September 11-9 attacks was announced in the Federal Register.

Basayev is the main Chechen independence fighters and has taken responsibility for a series of attacks in May that killed nearly 100 people, as well as the October hostage-taking in a Moscow theater.

U.S. officials also accuse Basayev of having allegedly received millions of dollars from Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network, which Washington blames on 9-11 attacks.

In late February, Powell similarly designated three Chechen groups affiliated with Basayev, accusing them of ties to al-Qaeda and adding them to the U.S. list of banned terrorist organizations.

In April, the U.S. refused to sponsor a resolution on Chechnya proposed by other nations at the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission.

Observers saw the  American move as outraging given Russian military's record in Chechnya.

According to official Russian report published earlier this year, the military abuses in Chechnya left more than 100 civilians killed, executed, abducted or tortured every month in Chechnya.