A policeman was killed, three policemen and a serviceman were injured in the blast and the shootout in Chechnya, a source in the Chechen law enforcement agencies told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. During an engineer reconnaissance party two kilometers of Shali on Tuesday servicemen hit a landmine on the roadside of the Agishty-Shali highway. A contract serviceman was injured and hospitalized. The investigation into the blast is underway. Meanwhile, in the small hours of Wednesday a call came in the alert force of the police department in the Shatoi region. The caller said two unidentified criminals set on fire the house of the district policeman in Musolt-Aul, the source said. Policemen rushed to the incident site, but came under fire from unidentified criminals. The policemen returned the fire, but the bandits managed to escape. “A deputy commander of the squad of the police company was killed in the shootout. Another three policemen were injured,” the source said. The search operation for the attackers is underway. The source also emphasized that on Tuesday not far from Engel-Yurt in the Gudermes region officers of the main police department in the Southern Federal District, crack policemen and local policemen from the Gudermes region stopped a Zhiguli for a checkup. “The car was carrying two men, who put up armed resistance to policemen,” the source said. “The attackers were neutralized in the return fire, they are under identification. No policemen were injured. Two Kalashnikov assault rifles were confiscated from the detainees,” the source said.
