Four militants were killed in a special police operation in the mountainous south of Chechnya, in Russia's North Caucasus, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said on Thursday.

"The operation was conducted near the village of Nokhtch-Keloi in the Shatoi district of Chechnya... Four militants were killed in the operation," Kadyrov told journalists.

Three of the killed militants have been already identified, he said, adding that no police or law-enforcement personnel were injured in the operation, which was still ongoing in the area.

Moscow announced an end to its decade-long antiterrorism campaign against separatists in Chechnya in April 2009, but has since had to step up the fight against militants as skirmishes and attacks on police and other officials have continued.

GROZNY, March 11 (RIA Novosti)