Leader: Six Armed People, Three Police Killed In Chechnya Russia

Leader: Six Armed People, Three Police Killed In Chechnya Russia

Moscow (Antara / Reuters) - At least six gunmen and three policemen were killed in a gun battle in which the building was raided in the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Thursday, said the leader of Russia's restive southern region.

Attack, before the Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a speech at Moscow's annual state, underscoring the fragile security situation in Chechnya more than a decade after he sent troops to quell separatist there.

Kremlin-backed Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, wrote in an account Instagrammnya that "six terrorists destroyed" after they opened fire on a police patrol car, killing three officers, and then stormed the offices housing the local media.

A spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry in Moscow said an unspecified operation is still ongoing in Grozny, but gave no other details.

Russian news agency Tass quoted Kadyrov said, some gunmen remained in hiding at a school in the city center.

It is not clear whether the hostages had been taken over.

One video posted on YouTube shows what appears to be a recording of the clash. This video suggests the attacker entered Grozny as an act of "retaliation" for what he called Muslim oppression.

Kadyrov continues gripping separatist war in Chechnya after the 1994-1996 and 1999-2000, but the Islamic insurgency has spread in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus, driven by a mixture of religious fervor and anger over allegations of corruption and human rights violations.

In October, five policemen were killed and 12 wounded in Grozny when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives when the officers approached him asking for identification papers.