Bombs injure several soldiers, police in Russia's Ingushetia - official
NAZRAN, Russia. June 2 (Interfax) - Several soldiers and policemen were injured as a car hit a roadside landmine and a hand grenade attached to a tripwire in the Ingushetia republic in Russia's North Caucasus on Monday, a senior security official said.
"The first explosion occurred during a reconnaissance and search operation," Alikhan Kuzgov told Interfax. "A car with soldiers rode over an old mine that lay by the side of the road."
Two soldiers were concussed, he said.
Police who arrived to investigate the incident, which occurred in Sunzhensky district, hit a tripwire with a hand grenade attached to it, Kuzgov said. The grenade exploded, giving light injuries and concussions to three policemen, including district police chief Akhmed Dzeitov.
Kuzgov said detectives were working on the site.
Earlier, a law enforcement source in Ingushetia had told Interfax about the blasts.
"The first explosion took place when a convoy with Interior Forces troops was passing along a road in the vicinity of the village of Berd-Yurt. Two servicemen were concussed as a result of the explosion. The second explosion took place when a reinforcement arrived at the site of the first incident. As a result of the explosion, the commander of an Interior Forces platoon and two other servicemen received heavy injuries," the source said, expressing suspicion that the convoy had been ambushed.
Meanwhile, a source in the Sunzhensky district police station told Interfax that the head of the station, four other policemen and one soldier had been injured as two improvised bombs went off.
"The first bomb exploded when a military convoy was passing by in the vicinity of the village of Berd-Yurt. It damaged a UAZ car that had two servicemen inside, one of whom was injured. A team of investigators led by the head of the Sunzhensky district [police station], Police Col. Akhmed Dzeitov, set off for the site of the incident. On the site of the explosion, the police officers and bomb disposal experts detected a wire, and, when they walked along it, the second bomb went off, as a result of which Col. Dzeitov and four other policemen received shrapnel wounds," the source said.
He said the site was cordoned off, and more police and explosive experts had been sent over to "examine the locality." "Col. Dzeitov and the other police officers are receiving necessary skilled medical assistance," the source said.
One more source in the district police station confirmed that Dzeitov and an Interior Forces platoon commander had been injured. "In the second explosion, the head of the Sunzhensky [police station] received a light concussion and scratches. The commander of the Interior Forces platoon received a heavy injury - he had his leg torn off by the blast," the source said.
He said helicopters had arrived at the incident site to take the casualties to a military hospital.
