Russia: 6 militants, 6 soldiers killed in Chechen firefight

Russian authorities say six suspected militants and six soldiers were killed during a firefight in the volatile North Caucasus region.

The National Anti-terrorism Committee said in a statement Friday that armed militants, including two with suicide belts, tried to break into a National Guard base in Chechnya in the early hours of the morning.

The National Guard, a powerful new security agency created last year by President Vladimir Putin, said in a statement that the attack took place in heavy fog.

The Kremlin has relied on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to stabilize the situation in the mainly Muslin region in the wake of two bloody separatist wars that followed the fall of the Soviet Union.

(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)