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19 Dead in Chechen Shootout

   VOA News 29 August 2010
   Chechen  president Ramzan Kadyrov's personal security officers collect
   the  bodies of suspected separatist insurgents killed in a shootout in
   Tsentoroi,  Kadyrov's home village, in this image made from television
   29 Aug 2010

Photo: AP

   Chechen  president Ramzan Kadyrov's personal security officers collect
   the  bodies of suspected separatist insurgents killed in a shootout in
   Tsentoroi,  Kadyrov's home village, in this image made from television
   29 Aug 2010

   Russian  officials  say  a  shootout  between  the Chechen president's
   personal  protection  detail  and  suspected separatist insurgents has
   left 19 people dead, including five civilians.

   News  reports  say  at  least 12 suspected insurgents and two security
   officers  were killed early Sunday when the rebels entered the village
   of  Tsentoroi,  the  home  of the Chechen republic's president, Ramzan
   Kadyrov.

   Kadyrov  was  in  the  village  at  the  time  and  took charge of the
   operation. He said five civilians were caught in crossfire.

   In  a  separate  incident,  police  killed  four suspected rebels late
   Saturday  traveling  in  two  cars  in  the Khasavyurt district of the
   nearby Russian region of Kabardino-Balkaria.

   Earlier  Saturday,  officials announced that Russian forces had killed
   at  least nine suspected militants in operations in Kabardino-Balkaria
   and the nearby Russian republic of Dagestan.

   Deadly  violence  is  reported almost daily in Russia's largely-Muslim
   North   Caucasus   republics,   which   include   Chechnya,  Dagestan,
   Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, North Ossetia and
   Stavropol.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP.

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