MOSCOW, July 12 (RIA Novosti) - Eight militants have been killed in special operations in three regions of Chechnya since last night, the North Caucasus republic's interior ministry said on Sunday.

During the night, police tried to stop a car for a search in the Zavodsky district of the capital, Grozny. Shots were fired from the car, and "in the return fire three members of armed groups were killed," the ministry said in a statement.

At 5:00 a.m. a similar incident occurred in the Shalinsky district. Another three militants were shot dead after they opened fire on police officers.

Three hours later Urus-Martan district, two more militants were killed during a shootout with police on the Goy-Chu highway. Their bodies have already been identified, the ministry statement said.

In the neighboring republic of Daghestan, five more militants were fatally shot early on Sunday in the town of Khasavyurt on the Makhachkala highway. They had opened fire after their car, travelling without vehicle registration plates, was stopped for a check, police said.