VLADIKAVKAZ/MOSCOW, July 6 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's military dismissed earlier reports of casualties among troops following an attack on a motorized infantry regiment in the east of Russia's southern republic of Ingushetia Friday.
"Thank God, no one was killed or injured," army spokesman Andrei Lyatychevsky said, adding that details would follow later.
The local department of the Federal Security Service, Russia's main domestic security agency, confirmed the absence of casualties. "A team of investigators visited the scene... A regiment spokesman said no one had been injured in the shelling," a duty officer said.
A group of armed militants attacked the regiment based in the Sunzha district bordering on the troubled republic of Chechnya, a local police source said earlier Friday. He said the number of assailants was unknown, but estimated at over 10 people.
"Militants fired at the base with assault rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers...and there may be casualties among the soldiers," he said, adding that access to the base had been blocked by police but there were ambulances coming in and out.
Police said about nine rocket-propelled grenades had been fired at the regiment presumably from a nearby Muslim cemetery.
Attacks on troops, police and officials in the republic have stepped up recently.
The town of Karabulak to the northeast of Ingushetia's largest city, Nazran, was in the media spotlight Tuesday, when a deputy mayor was assassinated near his home.
A bomb detonated in Karabulak June 29 killed one person. Half an hour earlier, unknown gunmen attacked a car carrying special police, leaving no casualties.
Earlier in June, assailants fired at least 20 rocket-propelled grenades at a special-purpose police base in the town. Police returned fire, and the shootout lasted about 40 minutes. Three suspects were later detained in a car close to the scene with large quantities of ammunition.
