Russian Says troops killed 20 militants in Chechnya

RUSSIAN SAYS TROOP KILLED 20 MILITANTS IN CHECHNYA posted on 14 november 2009

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – Government forces have killed more than 20 militants in Chechnya, and a bomb blast at a cemetery in a neighboring province killed three relatives visiting the grave of a police officer slain by insurgents, law enforcement authorities said.

Chechnya's Kremlin-backed president said it was possible Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov was among those killed Friday in the fighting in the province's southern mountains. President Ramzan Kadyrov said one of the dead was identified as a comrade who has often been at Umarov's side, according to his office, but he cited no other evidence and said forensics experts would seek to identify other victims.

Chechen Interior Minister Magomed Deniyev said there were no casualties among government forces in the fighting. The reported toll was unusually high, but it comes amid an upsurge of violence in mostly Muslim Chechnya nearly a decade after Russian forces drove an independence-minded regional government from power in the second of two devastating separatist wars. Neighboring provinces in Russia's volatile North Caucasus are also plagued by violence, and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev singled out the region as a source of serious concern in his state of the nation speech Tuesday.