BRIEFS

–FOUR SERVICEMEN KILLED IN CHECHNYA

Radio Liberty’s Russian-language service reported on June 28 that four Russian servicemen were killed fighting in Chechnya. The radio station reported that two servicemen died and four were wounded in a battle with militants in the Achkoi-Martan district. Another serviceman was killed when a mine exploded in the Vedeno district. The fourth serviceman died in the Staropromyslovsky district when an explosion hit the car he was riding in. Two other soldiers were wounded in that blast. On June 27, a car bomb went off near a market in Grozny’s Leninsky district, wounding one policeman. No one else was hurt in the blast.

–BOMBS GO OFF IN NORTH OSSETIA

Three bomb blasts took place in North Ossetia on June 25. The first blast, which took place at 5 AM local time, blew up a cell-phone transmission tower belonging to the Megafon company in the Prigorodny district near the villages of Kurtat and Dachnoye, Interfax reported. No one was injured in the blast. The second explosion took place around 9:30 AM in Vladikavkaz. The blast damaged a car and broke windows in nearby kiosks, but again, no one was hurt. The third blast took place an hour later near the headquarters of the North Ossetian branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Vladikavkaz. According to Itar-Tass, the explosive device included a flask of mercury, but the quantity of poisonous substance released into the atmosphere as a result of the blast was insufficient to cause harm. No one was hurt in that blast. The Chechenpress website on June 26 posted a statement by the Ossetian jamaat, “Kataib al-Khoul,” denying responsibility for the blasts. “Given the current situation in Ossetia, it is most likely that the explosions were carried out by the Ossetian FSB and are one of the elements in a multi-pronged maneuver aimed in the fight against the military jamaats,” the statement read.