Rebel attacks, armed clashes and mine blasts in Chechnya left at least nine Russian servicemen, Chechen police and separatist fighters dead in the previous 24 hours, an official in the region's Moscow-backed administration said on Saturday.
Russian forces continued to target suspected rebel positions in mountainous southern Chechnya with artillery and detained more than 150 people around the region in security sweeps searching for rebels, the official said condition of anonymity.
Five Russian servicemen were killed and seven others wounded in rebel attacks on Russian positions in the region, the official said. The sixth death among Russian or pro-Moscow forces came when a Chechen riot police squad member stepped on a mine on Friday in the capital, Grozny, he said.
A clash between Russian riot police and rebels early Saturday left three police wounded, while one rebel was killed and one detained, the official said. Two rebels were killed when a land-mine they were planting near the second-largest city, Gu-dermes, exploded, the official said, and three Russian servicemen were wounded when their vehicle came under fire late Friday.
Statements by Russian and Chechen officials about casualties, particularly among rebels, are difficult to confirm.
Fighting persists in Chechnya four years after Russian forces entered the mostly Muslim region in southern Russia in 1999 in the second attempt in a decade to crush separatist rebels. Russian troops had withdrawn after a 1994-1996 war that had killed tens of thousands of soldiers, rebels and civilians and ended with the separatists in control.
The Kremlin has ruled out negotiations with rebel leaders and is portraying a regional presidential election scheduled for Oct. 5 as part of a series of steps to restore peace and stability to Chechnya. It also hailed a March referendum that cemented the region's status as part of he Russian Federation.
On Thursday the two main challengers of Chechnya's Moscow-appointed administration chief and acting president, Akhmad Kadyrov, were removed or dropped out of the presidential race.
The Supreme Court of Chechnya annulled the registration of Malik Saidullayev days after he alleged that Kadyrov's administration was using intimidation and violence against others on the ballot.
Aslanbek Aslakhanov, who represents Chechnya in the Russian parliament, announced that he was withdrawing from the race to become an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Recent opinion polls had shown that both Saidullayev and Aslanbek Aslakhanov were far more popular than Kadyrov among voters in Chechnya.
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