Eleven Russian soldiers were killed and a further 11 were injured when their truck plunged down a 30-metre (90-foot) precipice, local media reported on Sunday. Itar-Tass news agency quoted local police as saying the vehicle, carrying members of the special forces, tumbled from a bridge in the southern region of Dagestan, near Chechnya. The truck had been travelling as part of a convoy along a mountain road on Saturday. It was unclear how the accident had happened. In a separate incident, two soldiers were killed when their Mi-24 helicopter crashed in Chechnya on Sunday, news agencies quoted a local air force official as saying. There was no information about what may have caused the crash. Southern Russian is a tense region after a spate of violence that has included a school siege, which ended with the deaths of more than 300 hostages --SP 2302 Local Time 2002 GMT
