Police targeted in Chechen attacks

Russian troops targeted despite taking most of the territory

Chechen rebels are reported to have killed nine people - including five police officers - in a 24-hour wave of attacks on those believed to be co-operating with the Russian-backed administration.

Chechen police told the Interfax news agency that three policemen were shot dead on Monday afternoon as a Russian convoy made its way back to base at Khankala from Argun, 10 kilometres (six miles) to the east.

Rebels are said increasingly to be targeting local people

Rebels reportedly opened fire on the unit's armoured police vehicle, causing it to burst into flames and explode less than a kilometre from a Russian checkpoint.

Russian troops went into Chechnya in September 1999 to drive out separatist rebels.

Although the soldiers have now occupied most of the region, correspondents say an increasing number of local people, notably policemen and Islamic leaders, have been killed since a pro-Russian administration was formed in Chechnya last year.

Alongside the three officers, a fourth policeman was killed in the Chechen capital Grozny late on Monday when he was ambushed by separatist gunmen, according to the Russian interior ministry.

The rebels have now decided to terrorise their own people

Sergei Yastrzhembsky's office

The pro-Russian chief of police in the north-eastern town of Kargalinskaya was also reported to have been shot dead along with his 17-year-old son.

The office of Russian President Vladimir Putin's top spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said the police chief and his son had been shot dead in a rebel ambush on the road between Kargalinskaya and the village of Sary-Su.

Mr Yastrzhembsky's office said the incident "proves that the rebels have now decided to terrorise their own people".

Clergy deaths

The imam of a mosque in the village of Germenchuk was also shot dead on Tuesday, according to Interfax.

Chechen mufti Akhmad-Khadzi Shamayev was quoted as saying that Magomed Khasuyev had been killed in a burst of automatic gunfire in the courtyard of his home.

The Itar-Tass news agency says more than 10 Chechen clergymen have been killed by rebels over the past few months.

In the town of Urus-Martan, two relatives of the local imam - himself recently killed - were shot dead early on Tuesday.

Ayub Idrisov, 73, and his son Khamzat, 35, were the brother and nephew of the late town imam Umar Idrisov, who was shot dead six months ago.

Mr Idrisov's successor as imam in Urus-Martan, Kasmagomed Umalatov, was among five pro-Russian victims of Chechen hit-squads at the weekend, when he was shot dead on the doorstep of his home.