| An official in Chechnya’s Kremlin-backed administration says that seven Russian soldiers died there over the last 24 hours in rebel attacks and mine explosions. Speaking to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity, he said that guerilla attacks against Russian outposts killed five of the federal servicemen. The raids wounded another six. He said that a landmine concealed on a tree in the Chechen capital, Grozny, killed another serviceman, and that another died when a Russian military vehicle came under fire near the village of Argun in eastern Chechnya. The official said that federal artillery fired at suspected rebel bases in the republic’s southern mountains, and at least 200 people were detained on suspicion of rebel links in security sweeps across Chechnya. |