Briefs

– Two Militants Killed in Chechnya

Interfax on May 17 reported that two militants were killed on the outskirts of the village of Selmentauzen in Chechnya’s Vedeno district. “Four militants were blocked in a wooded area outside Selmentauzen on Wednesday [May 16] evening after they offered armed resistance,” a law-enforcement source told the news agency. “Two of them were killed by return gunfire. Their bodies are being identified.” The source said that the law-enforcement units involved in the operation sustained no losses and that two Kalashnikov rifles were seized in the operation. “The operation to track down the surviving militants resumed at dawn,” the source said. Meanwhile, a suspected militant was detained in his house in Grozny’s Leninsky district while a man suspected of supplying “the criminal armed group led by Suleiman Imurzaev” with food and providing it with information about the location and routes of federal forces was detained in Dyshne-Vedeno, Interfax reported. Both detentions took place on May 16.

– Eighteen Servicemen Killed in Chechnya in April

The Russian Defense Ministry’s official website reported on May 16 that 18 Russian servicemen were killed in Chechnya in April. According to Interfax, the ministry said that all 18 deaths were combat losses. According to Interfax, 29 Russian servicemen have been killed in Chechnya since the start of this year. As of May 1 of this year, 3,632 servicemen had been killed in Chechnya since 1999 and 31 had gone missing.

– Two Killed in Nalchik Blast

Newsru.com, citing Interfax, reported on May 12 that two people were killed in an explosion in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria. According to the press service of Kabardino-Balkaria’s Interior Ministry, the blast took place at a trash dump on the outskirts of the city when a tractor was dumping trash. One of the victims was a housing and communal services worker while the other was collecting metal in the dump at the time of the explosion.