| Federal soldiers and Chechen troops clashed overnight with a large rebel group trying to enter a village in southern Chechnya, according to Russian news reports Monday. Col. Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the Russian forces in Chechnya, said that fighters tried to enter Avtury in Chechnya’s mountainous south late Sunday night to replenish their food supply. Federal units, assisted by officers from the Chechen security service run by late President Akhmad Kadyrov’s son, opened fire. In the fighting, four Chechen officers were wounded. Two rebels were killed. |