Land Mine Kills Four Russian Soldiers, Hurts 3 in Chechnya

A land mine blew up a Russian military truck Friday, killing four soldiers in the latest deadly attack by rebels in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

Three other Interior Ministry soldiers were injured when the mine went off in the Shali region, between the Chechen capital Grozny and the southern mountains where the rebels are concentrated, the news agency Interfax reported.

Guerrillas also ambushed Russian troops in three attacks Thursday and Friday in Grozny, which Russian forces have claimed to control since February. Russian officials say many guerrillas have melted into the civilian population.

Federal forces were searching Grozny for what officials described as 500 or more guerrillas.

Russian units on the border with the neighboring region of Dagestan were put on alert because of the surge in attacks, officials said. The last three days have seen a spate of ambushes in which at least 10 Russian soldiers were killed.

Chechen rebels, although outnumbered and outgunned, continue to mount damaging small attacks on Russian forces. Russian officials say the rebels have increased their activity to embarrass President Vladimir V. Putin during the Group of Eight summit in Okinawa, Japan.

Meanwhile, Putin’s envoy to the region said two warring pro-Moscow Chechen officials had patched up a dispute that had led one of them to call his armed followers into the streets.

The feud, which demonstrated the difficulties Russia faces in exerting control over the rebel region, was between Akhmad Kadyrov, the Kremlin’s civilian administrator of Chechnya, and his deputy, Bislan Gantamirov. The two met Friday in the town of Nalchik in the nearby region of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Gantamirov had called armed supporters into the Chechen administrative center of Gudermes on Tuesday and threatened to search the administration of his boss for guerrilla fighters seeking independence from Russia.

Gantamirov backed down, but Kadyrov called the threat a “mutiny.”

Gantamirov had objected to Kadyrov’s replacing Gantamirov supporters as administrators in several towns.

There was no immediate comment from Gantamirov or Kadyrov.

Moscow has struggled to set up an effective pro-Russian Chechen political force, with independence fighters still appearing to have a strong following.

Russian troops were driven out of Chechnya in a 1994-96 war with independence fighters, and Moscow lost control of the region. Troops returned in September after militants based in Chechnya attacked villages in Dagestan, and after about 300 people died in apartment bombings the government blames on Chechens.