By
The Associated Press
NAZRAN, Russia - Fighting in Chechnya killed a dozen Russian soldiers and wounded 17 others, an official said yesterday.
Five soldiers were killed and seven wounded when rebels attacked a Russian military convoy as it wound along a mountain road near the eastern town of Nozhai-Yurt Wednesday, an official in Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration said, on condition of anonymity. Three rebels died in the attack, he added.
Separately, three Russian soldiers were killed and three wounded when their military vehicles struck land mines, the official said. Two Russians also died as they attempted to defuse a mine in Grozny on Wednesday.
Rebels attacked Russian positions and checkpoints 21 times over the past 24 hours, killing two soldiers and wounding seven others, the official said.
The fighting came as a European human rights official toured the war-torn region, and urged Russia to scale back its military presence and begin investigating alleged human rights abuses. Alvaro Gil-Robles, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner, returned to Moscow yesterday.
Russia's army withdrew from Chechnya in 1996 after a failed, 20-month effort to suppress an insurgency. Ground troops returned in 1999 after rebels invaded a neighboring province and a series of apartment bombings in Russian cities were blamed on the rebels.
