Two policemen were killed in a in a shootout with militants in Chechnya, in Russia's North Caucasus, a spokesman for local law enforcers said.

He said law enforcers were carrying out a special operation in a mountainous district of the republic near the border of Ingushetia to detect a group of suspected militants.

The operation is still ongoing, he said, and the place of the shootout would be examined later.

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 14 (RIA Novosti)