MOSCOW, May 18 (News Agencies) - Seventeen Russian soldiers were killed in Chechnya when an explosive device blew up their truck, separatist fighters said Friday in the breakaway Russian republic.
The attack occurred late Thursday on a road some 15 kilometers (nine miles) south of the Chechen capital Grozny, the press service of the pro-independence president's office said.
Government officials in Moscow could not immediately confirm the report.
However, the Russian federal army confirmed that a Russian colonel and two separatists had been killed in an incident late Thursday, Interfax news agency reported.
The colonel was in a car pursuing a suspect vehicle, which suddenly stopped and opened fire. Four separatists were captured, according to the report.
Kremlin sources on Wednesday said some 3,100 Russian servicemen had been killed and another 9,000 injured since the start of the military operation in Chechnya in October 1999.
However, the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia claims the death toll is at least double the official figure.
Meanwhile in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's human rights representative for Chechnya said that 546 people had been reported missing in Chechnya since October 1999.
Vladimir Kalamanov said only 382 were still being investigated. There was insufficient information about the remainder to be able to conduct enquiries, he said.
However, an unofficial human rights organization said that the true number of missing was much higher.
Eliza Musayeva, representing the rights group Memorial, said the figure given by Kalamanov covered only cases of which his office had been notified.
She said a commission for missing persons reporting to the pro-Moscow government in Chechnya had received more than 1,000 appeals for assistance in tracing missing persons.
