9 dead in Chechen capital gun battle
A gun battle broke out early Thursday in the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, leaving at least three traffic police officers and six gunmen dead, authorities said. The fighting punctured the patina of stability ensured by years of heavy-handed rule by a Kremlin-appointed leader.
Security officials and the leader of Chechnya said militants traveling in several cars killed three traffic police at a checkpoint in the capital of the republic, Grozny. State news agency RIA-Novosti cited an unnamed law enforcement source as stating that five police officers were killed.
