GROZNY, November 26 (RIA Novosti) - Chechen special purpose police have killed two militants who reportedly attacked overnight a police checkpoint in the republic's capital, Grozny, a spokesman for investigators said on Wednesday.

The militants were surrounded several minutes after opening fire on the checkpoint from their car, but resisted.

Police subsequently found two automatic rifles, a pistol, and two grenades in the militants' car.

Terrorist attacks and militant clashes remain common in Russia's North Caucasus, particularly in the republics of Chechnya, the site of two brutal separatist wars in the 1990s and early 2000s, and Ingushetia, which has seen a marked increase in fighting between federal forces and militants of late.