Sep. 14, 2003

Narcotics Officer Shot Dead

The Associated Press VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia -- Masked gunmen shot a narcotics police officer to death at the house where he was staying in Chechnya on Sunday, an official in the Moscow-backed Chechen administration said Sunday.

Vladimir Babenko, an officer from a drug control unit who was on assignment in Chechnya, was killed early in the morning by masked gunmen in Alpatovo, a village in the Naursky district northwest of Grozny, the official said on condition of anonymity. Babenko was on assignment with the Chechen Interior Ministry.

Separately, the official said four servicemen were killed and 11 others wounded in rebel attacks, armed clashes and land-mine explosions in the previous 24 hours.

Two of the servicemen died and eight were wounded in rebel attacks on Russian positions, which came under fire 14 times in the past day, the official said. One died and two were wounded in a clash Saturday near the town of Itum-Kale in southern Chechnya, and another died and one was wounded in fighting near the Georgian border, also in the Itum-Kale district, he said.

Two Chechen riot police officers were wounded when their car came under fire in Grozny, the official said.

Meanwhile, the official said, federal aircraft and artillery targeted suspected rebel bases in the mountains of southern Chechnya, and federal forces detained at least 150 people in security sweeps that human rights groups have said are rife with abuses of civilians.