Police say they killed 5 militants in capital of Chechnya region

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Heavily armed police attacked a home in the capital of Russia's war-scarred Chechnya region early Tuesday, killing four suspected militants including the alleged leader of a rebel group, law enforcement authorities said. Another suspected militant was killed in a separate exchange of gunfire in the center of Grozny late Monday, Chechnya's Interior Ministry said. Tuesday's assault in the city's violent Lenin district came after police surrounded a home where the suspected militants had been living. According to the Interior Ministry, the occupants of the home answered a surrender demand by opening fire, and all four were killed in the ensuing gunbattle. A riot police officer was wounded, the ministry said.