Russian rebels say they shot down army helicopter

Moscow: Russian insurgents said they shot down a military helicopter that crashed on Monday killing 11 people, including senior officers.

The claim could not be independently verified. Military commanders have said the most likely cause of the crash was a combination of bad weather and pilot error.

The claim was made by a group calling itself the Ossetia Jamaat, which said it was allied to other Islamist insurgent groups in Russia's North Caucasus region, which includes Chechnya.

"The mujahideen [holy warriors] shot down the helicopter with the help of a shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile," the group said in a statement posted on rebel website www.chechenpress.net.

Russia's Defence Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment. The helicopter crashed in a wooded ravine in North Ossetia, a mainly Christian province of the North Caucasus that has seen little homegrown insurgent activity. The statement said the insurgents targeted the Mi-8 helicopter after receiving intelligence it was carrying senior officers.

Police units fire at each other killing seven

Seven people were killed and 21 wounded yesterday when two police units from separate parts of the volatile North Caucasus fired on each other near Chechnya in a mix-up, Russian news agencies said.

"Ingushetia's Interior Ministry views the incident at the outpost near the Chechen border as a fatal mistake made by the policemen involved in the shootout," Interfax news agency quoted Ingush police spokesman Nazir Yevloyev as saying. An investigation was under way, he said.