Nineteen dead in militant attack on president

By The Newsroom
Published 29th Aug 2010, 16:48 BST
Updated 30th Aug 2010, 00:03 BST
A SHOOT out between the Chechen president's personal protection detail and suspected separatist insurgents left 19 people dead early yesterday, including five civilians.

At least 12 suspected insurgents and two security officers were killed when the rebels entered Tsentoroi, Ramzan Kadyrov's home village, his spokesman Alvi Karimov said.

TV reports said five civilians were killed in the crossfire.

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Mr Kadyrov, who is thought to regularly supervise security operations in the field, was in the village at the time and directed the counter-offensive, Mr Karimov said.

"We let them into the village so they couldn't escape," Mr Kadyrov told local television, which showed him examining the bodies of the suspected militants strewn across a road. "We forced them into a place where they could be eliminated," he said.

Resident Vargan Edelgeriyeva, 48, said the gun battle started at about 3am on a construction site about 150 metres away from Kadyrov's residence.

Militants entered local homes but were surrounded, Ms Edelgeriyeva added.