Rostov-On-Don, Russia: A shootout between the Chechen president's personal protection detail and suspected separatist insurgents has left 19 people dead, including five civilians, officials and media reports said.
At least 12 suspected insurgents and two security officers were killed when the rebels entered Tsentoroi, Ramzan Kadyrov's home village, early yesterday, his spokesman Alvi Karimov said. TV reports said five civilians were killed in the crossfire.
Kadyrov, who is thought to regularly supervise security operations in the field, was in the village at the time and directed the counter-offensive, Karimov said.
"We let them into the village so they couldn't escape," Kadyrov told Channel One television, which showed him examining the bodies of the suspected militants strewn across a road. "We forced them into a place where they could be eliminated," he said.
Police in 2009 averted a possible assassination attempt on Kadyrov, shooting dead the driver of a car suspected of containing explosives before he could reach a construction site where Kadyrov was due to make an appearance.
In a separate incident, security forces in nearby Dagestan province shot dead four suspected militants travelling in two cars when they refused to stop at a police checkpoint, according to police spokesman Magomed Tagirov.
