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Seven people kidnapped in Chechnya ROSTOV-ON-DON. July 13 (Interfax) - One man has been killed and another seven have been abducted in a series of incidents in Chechnya over the past 24 hours, a source in the republic's Interior Ministry told Interfax on Tuesday. Three people were kidnapped in Grozny and another four in the village of Assinovskaya. The incident in Assinovskaya prompted a picket involving Sunzhen district residents, which paralyzed traffic along the Kavkaz federal highway. Local administration officials and police had to intervene, but force was not used against the demonstrators. A grenade launcher, grenades, ammunition, and explosives were discovered in Grozny and the republic's Vedeno, Shelkovskoy and Nozhai-Yurt districts over the past 24 hours, the Russian Interior Ministry's press center in the North Caucasus told Interfax. The headquarters for the counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus has confirmed that a large weapons cache was found in a forest in Ingushetia's Malgobek district. It contained 106 Kalashnikov assault rifles, three submachine guns, eight grenade launchers, eight pistols, ammunition and detonators. Two servicemen were injured in landmine explosions in Chechnya's Shatoi and Itum-Kale districts, local police sources told Interfax. Armed clashes were reported between federal special forces units and a group of up to 20 rebels near the village of Avtury in the Shali district, spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus Maj. Gen. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Tuesday. The rebels were dispersed and fled into a forest, which was then shelled by artillery. Weapons, ammunition, and explosives were found at the scene, and the number of casualties is being clarified. Some members of the rebel group were spotted by Chechen presidential security units outside Avtury a few hours later. A search for the rest of the rebels is in progress, Shabalkin said. Chechen officials discuss ways to combat kidnapping Interfax. Tuesday, Jul. 13, 2004, 8:33 PM Moscow Time GROZNY. June 13 (Interfax-South) - The Chechen authorities are seriously concerned about poor coordination between the organizations participating in the counter-terrorist operation. "We are also concerned about the recent wave of kidnapping in Chechnya," acting Chechen President Sergei Abramov told the Chechen government on Tuesday. Chechen Interior Minister Alu Alkhanov told journalists after the meeting, that "132 people have gone missing since the beginning of the year and 371 people went missing last year." "We are determined to take radical measures to change the situation and we will not tolerate this any more," Alkhanov said. He said "an absolute majority of kidnapping cases involve those who themselves must safeguard law and order in the republic." The speakers said that the instruction on methods for carrying out special operations, issued by the Russian prosecutor general and by the commander of the Joint Forces in the North Caucasus, must be strictly observed. Chechnya's First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said that "any person who violates the law and takes freedom away from other people, irrespective of his official position, is a criminal and must be dealt with in accordance with the law." Chechen Interior Ministry officials said that district police stations are still experiencing a dire shortage of fire arms. Wednesday, July 14, 2004. Page 1. The Moscow Times Chechnya Leader Escapes Bombing By Anatoly Medetsky Staff Writer AP Photo NTV footage showing a car riddled with holes from Tuesday's bomb attack in Grozny. Acting Chechen President Sergei Abramov narrowly escaped injury in a bomb attack in Grozny on Tuesday, just hours after 19 federal and pro- Moscow troops and at least 24 rebels were killed in two major gunfights. The bomb went off on the roadside as Abramov's motorcade sped by, a spokesman for Chechnya's Interior Ministry, Ruslan Atsayev, said by telephone from Grozny. The explosion hit the car in front of Abramov's, killing one bodyguard and wounding three others, according to Atsayev and Deputy Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov. Two of the wounded were also bodyguards and the third was an adviser, officials for the pro-Moscow Grozny administration said. The bomb was triggered by a radio signal, and as the explosion rang out, gunmen sprayed the motorcade with bullets, Alkhanov said, Interfax reported. Abramov was terse and sounded shocked in a brief telephone interview that Channel One television broadcast live just 1 1/2 hours after the attack. "I want to thank the bodyguards for the courage they showed," he said. "If it hadn't been for them, I wouldn't be alive." NTV television's footage from the scene showed a white Volga sedan, riddled with holes made by debris from the bomb, sitting on a sunny tree-lined road. The leafy environment and the fact that the neighborhood's apartment buildings were abandoned made the spot a perfect place to plant a bomb undetected, NTV reported. The bomb was most likely a converted artillery shell, police said. Abramov and federal and local officials, traveling in more than 40 cars, were going to the town of Argun to inspect facilities to be restored as part of efforts to rebuild the war-ravaged republic, said Construction Minister Akhmed Gekhayev, Interfax reported. Police were investigating the scene of the explosion Tuesday and did not report any arrests. The attack came two months after rebels killed Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov by detonating a bomb at a Grozny stadium where was attending Victory Day celebrations. Warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the bombing. Chechen rebel warlords have repeatedly threatened death to pro-Moscow officials. Chechnya's interior minister, Alu Alkhanov, is the Kremlin-backed favorite to succeed Kadyrov in the republic's presidential election, scheduled for Aug. 29. "[The rebels] are doing what they said they would," said Alexei Malashenko, an expert on Chechnya at the Moscow Carnegie Center. "No antidote has been found so far against that." The assassination attempt took place hours after two major gunfights, in which Chechnya's presidential security force, known as kadyrovtsy, and federal troops fought rebels near Avtury village from Monday to Tuesday morning. First, federal troops ambushed about 20 rebels and made them retreat into the woods, said a statement from the headquarters for Chechnya operations. Artillery then pounded the retreating rebels, it said. One serviceman was killed and one wounded while the rebels suffered eight casualties, headquarters sources told Itar-Tass. Kadyrovtsy encountered "what was left of the group" near Avtury just before midnight, headquarters spokesman Major General Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax. In the ensuing fighting, at least 24 rebels and 18 kadyrovtsy were killed, Deputy Interior Minister Alkhanov said, Interfax reported. Troops were combing the area Tuesday to locate and detain those rebels who might have fled, Shabalkin said. Federal troops are killed on a virtually daily basis in small-scale rebel attacks, but the latest one stands out by the number of casualties. It comes on the heels of last month's raid in Ingushetia, in which rebels killed at least 88 people. The Carnegie Center's Malashenko said the rebels' attacks had "showed this year that this war would never end. They have a lot of strength," he said.