MOSCOW, March 20 (RIA Novosti) - A skirmish with militants in Chechnya left five law enforcement officers dead and another three wounded, a police source in the North Caucasus republic said on Thursday.
The clash with a militant group, of up to 15 people, took place in a forest in central Chechnya during a search operation by local police. "Three militants were killed in response fire," the source said.
Chechnya saw two Kremlin-led military campaigns in the 1990s-early 2000s against a separatist regime, and although Moscow has resumed control over the republic, sporadic clashes with militant groups are not rare.
