Rebel Attacks, Mines Kill 8 Russians in Chechnya

At least eight Russian servicemen were killed and 14 others wounded in rebel raids and land mine explosions in Chechnya, an official in the Kremlin-backed Chechen administration said Wednesday.

Five federal soldiers were killed and seven more wounded in rebel attacks on military outposts throughout Chechnya over a 24-hour period, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Near the village of Uluskert on Tuesday, rebels ambushed a military convoy, killing two soldiers and wounding five others, the official said.

In the Chechen capital, Grozny, a land mine killed a sapper and wounded two comrades Tuesday.

In a customary retaliation to daily raids by rebels, Russian artillery have shelled suspected rebel camps in the forested mountains in the Nozhai-Yurt, Vedeno and Itum-Kale regions. Federal forces detained at least 200 people across Chechnya on suspicion of being linked to rebels, the official said.

Russian troops pulled out of Chechnya after a disastrous 1994-96 war against separatist rebels that killed tens of thousands of people and left the mostly Muslim region de facto independent and largely lawless.

The troops returned in September 1999 after militants based in Chechnya launched incursions into a neighboring province and after about 300 people died in apartment bombings that the Kremlin blamed on the rebels.