Nine Chechen policemen died and another nine were wounded as a result of an attack in Ingushetia, Secretary of Security Council of Ingushetia Alexei Vorobyov told Itar-Tass. According to Vorobyov, Chechen police officers who were moving in two cars got into an ambush of militants in the motor road between the villages of Arshty and Chemulga at 08.40 Moscow time on Saturday. The Chechen policemen, who were conducting a special operation jointly with Ingushetia's police in the area of the administrative border of Ingushetia and Chechnya, were fired at by militants. According to the Interior Ministry of Ingushetia, “officers of the Achkhoi-Martan Regional Interior Department of Chechnya were fired at from grenade launchers, fire arms and a machine-gun from the ambush from three points.” “There were five cars in the column. The head of the administration of the village of Arshty was in the first UAZ-469 car. There were 35 police officers in the cars,” a ministry spokesman said. The Chechen policemen jointly with their Ingush colleagues were conducting an operation to neutralize militants. Measures are being taken to detain the criminals. No information on victims among the attackers is available. For his part, Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov said that the murder of Chechen policemen in Ingushetia wouldn't be unpunished. “We'll make all efforts to search for and destroy these criminals,” Ruslan Alkhanov said. Besides, the Chechen Interior Minister promised that relatives of the dead and wounded would be rendered all necessary material aid.
