New federal forces casualties in Chechnya

Two servicemen died and two were wounded during a battle in Chechnya on Thursday, a source at the Joint Group of Forces in the North Caucasus told RIA Novosti.

"The battle took place near the Dzhanei-Vedeno settlement in the Vedeno district last night," the source said. According to him, a Defense Ministry reconnaissance group consisting of Russian federal forces were ambushed.

"During the reconnaissance and search operation in a forest, militants fired automatic weapons at the servicemen in the reconnaissance unit. As a result, a lieutenant, the commander of the reconnaissance unit, and a contract serviceman were killed. A contract senior sergeant and an active serviceman were wounded," the source said.

A source at Chechnya's Interior Ministry said that during search operations in the Urus-Martan district, unknown individuals fired at policemen and Interior Ministry servicemen with automatic weapons.

He specified that, as a result of the attack, a staff member from the Anti-Organized Crime Department, who was on a mission in Chechnya from the Kaliningrad Region (a Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea), was injured.

The source also said that on Thursday evening, unknown individuals fired at a building that a Kirov Region (northern Russia) Interior Department police detachment was temporarily in, with a grenade launcher.

According to the source, a police major and a police senior sergeant were wounded in the attack. They were hospitalized.