| In fighting over the past 24 hours, military jets pounded the Nozhai-Yurtovsky district, not far from the border with Dagestan, while artillery shelled Vedensky, Nozhai-Yurtovsky and Kurchaloyevsky districts. Rebels fired on federal outposts 10 times, killing one soldier and wounding another four. In Chechnya's northeastern flatlands, where federal forces have firmer control than in the mountainous south, a police station was shelled by grenade launchers, killing two officers. One rebel died in an ensuing gunfight. In Grozny, an army jeep was shelled in the center of the city, killing two troops and wounding another two. The car of the deputy chairman of the Chechen government, Ali Alavdinov, was also destroyed by a remote-controlled mine. Alavdinov escaped without any injuries, but two of his bodyguards were seriously injured. |