Five Russian soldiers, two police officers killed in Chechnya

GROZNY: Five Russian soldiers were killed on Thursday in the war-torn republic of Chechnya, while two police officers from the interior ministry's forces were killed in neighbouring Ingushetia, police said.

The soldiers were burned alive when the vehicle they were travelling in exploded in Chechnya's second biggest town, Gudermes. The vehicle veered off the road, crashed into an electricity pole, overturned and caught fire, the interior ministry's press service said.

"There were then explosions. Apparently their ammunition exploded," the ministry said. It did not say why the vehicle came off the road in the first place. An inquiry has been launched.

Russian troops stormed Chechnya in October 1999 to try to re-establish control, following defeat in a first war against separatist guerrillas in 1994-96.

Although major clashes have become rare, Russian forces and local Chechen allies continue to suffer casualties virtually every week.

However attacks in the northern town of Gudermes are rare, as it is the stronghold of prime minister Ramzan Kadyrov, son of Chechnya's late Russian-backed president Akhmad Kadyrov. President Kadyrov was assassinated in May 2004.

Separately, local police said two officers from the interior ministry forces were shot in the unstable North Caucasian republic of Ingushetia on the road to its capital Nazran.

Their car was sprayed with bullets by gunmen in a passing car. A third police officer escaped.