Police officer wounded in attack in southern Russia

A police officer in the restive southern province of Ingushetia, neighboring Chechnya, has been wounded by unidentified assailants, officials said Sunday.

The assailants ambushed the officer's car and sprayed it with automatic gunfire on Saturday, said Roman Shchekotin, a spokesman for Russia's Interior Ministry branch in southern Russia.

Ingushetia is one of several southern Russian regions that has long been plagued by endemic violence _ some of it stemming from criminal gang feuds and some spilling over from the separatist conflict in nearby Chechnya.

In Kabardino-Balkariya, another nearby North Caucasus province, police arrested a suspected militant Saturday, Shchekotin said, AP reported. V.A.