Russian troops in Chechnya sustain almost daily causalities

Additional Reporting By Damir Ahmad, IOL Correspondent

GROZNY, August 27 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Four Russian soldiers were killed and five more wounded in two separate incidents in Chechnya, a Russian military official confirmed Wednesday, August 27.

Magomedsalih Gusayev, the information minister of Russia's southern republic of Dagestan, was also killed Wednesday killed in a powerful blast caused by a roadside explosive device, the Interfax news agency reported.

Three Russian soldiers were killed and two more were wounded Tuesday, August 26, in the Chechen capital Grozny when a grenade launcher was fired at their car from a nearby building, the Russian official told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Earlier that day, another Russian soldier was killed and three were wounded when their armored vehicle exploded on a one-kilogram land mine in the Chechen village of Katar Yurt, Russia's N.T.V channel reported.

Another landmine was later found and defused, as Russian authorities sealed off the area.

The channel further said that five officers of the Russian proxy in Checnya were wounded Tuesday in Grozny, when unknown persons hurled a hand grenade on a host of officers.

Meanwhile, the channel aired footage for three bodies of Chechen fighters who were reportedly killed during a fighting with Russian federal forces on Monday, August 25.

Four people were killed and 33 others wounded Monday in three blasts that jolted the Russian southern city of Krasnodar, 300km from Chechnya.

At least nine Russian soldiers were also killed and 16 others injured in the war-ravaged Caucasian republic of Chechnya on August 20.

Russia's first invasion of Chechnya between 1994 and 1996 ranks among the worst military engagements of the 20th century.

Chechen fighters have been fighting for independence and freedom since 1999.

Between 2,000 and 3,000 fighters are still active in Chechnya, where they have been battling Russian troops since the beginning of the second Chechnya war nearly four years ago, Chechnya's pro-Russian prime minister Anatoli Popov said Tuesday.