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Four Russian servicemen killed in North Caucasus bomb attack


    MOSCOW (Reuters) - Four Russian servicemen were killed and seven wounded after a bomb hit their infantry combat vehicle in the restive North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Russia's Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

    The group was carrying out engineering reconnaissance near Yandi village, some 45 km (28 miles) south-east of the regional capital Grozny, when their vehicle was blown up by a concealed explosive device, the statement said.

    Russia is fighting an Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus rooted in two post-Soviet separatist wars in Chechnya. Explosions and shootings now happen almost daily in the region, with violence relatively rare in Chechnya itself.

    The leader of the North Caucasus insurgency Doku Umarov was reported dead last month by a website sympathising with the militants, marking a success for President Vladimir Putin in his attempts to end the violent struggle against Russian rule.

    (Reporting By Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)