MOSCOW, June 1 (News Agencies) - Chechen separatist forces Friday admitted firing on a Russian helicopter in war-torn Chechnya, in an attack which killed a Russian pilot and wounded two senior members of the Moscow parliament.
The press service of separatist Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov told AFP by telephone that the shots fired on the helicopter on Thursday came from Chechen territory, close to the border with Ingushetia.
"The unit that fired on the helicopter could not know that parliamentarians were on board," the presidency stressed.
However "according to laws governing the conduct of war, Chechen military clearly have the right to shoot at planes and helicopters over Chechen territory," it added.
Alexei Arbatov, the deputy chief of the State Duma's defense committee, and defense committee member Yevgeny Zelenov, who were in the aircraft, were reported to be in satisfactory condition at Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital on Friday.
A Duma spokesman told AFP both lawmakers underwent minor surgery to remove shrapnel.
The pilot of the Mi-8 military helicopter was mortally wounded from ground fire, but his co-pilot managed to land the craft safely near a Russian military base in Nazran, Ingushetia.
Russia launched what it describes as an "anti-terrorist" campaign against Islamic separatists in Chechnya in October 1999 but has failed to stem the daily attacks, which have cost up to 3,000 soldiers' lives, according to some official estimates.
Maskhadov's office added that the separatists killed three pro-Russian police officers and wounded another 11 in the latest round of overnight fighting.
In response, federal troops have blocked all roads leading out of the separatist capital Grozny, where they were conducting so-called "cleansing operations" aimed at rounding up suspected separatists.
