The servicemen were killed in fighting that began Thursday and continued Friday in forested Caucasus Mountain foothills southwest of the capital, Grozny, a law enforcement official told Reuters.
The office of Moscow-backed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said six insurgents were killed on Thursday in fighting nearby.
Russian news agencies cited investigators in Chechnya as saying fighting initially broke out in one location and then erupted again in a neighboring district after government forces tracked down the fighters following the first gunbattle.
Violence has escalated over the past year in Chechnya, undermining a recovery in the mostly Muslim region following two devastating 1990s wars pitting government forces against separatist.
Kadyrov has expressed confidence the insurgents will soon be destroyed and has even announced plans to build a ski resort once they are eliminated from strongholds in the southern mountains. He launched a campaign to root them out last month.
Five Russian soldiers killed in Chechnya
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Sat, 2010-02-13 23:02
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