ON-DON, Russia, July 14, SPA -- A bomb blast killed a policeman and injured six others, while three militants and a soldier died in an overnight shootout in Russia's perilous North Caucasus region, authorities said Tuesday. The blast occurred in the capital of Chechnya late Monday, the province's Interior Ministry said in a statement. The homemade bomb had been attached to a police truck in Grozny. In neighboring Dagestan, three militants were killed during a two-hour gunbattle with police overnight, Dagestan's Interior Ministry spokesman Mark Tolchinsky said. A soldier also died in the shootout, he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. The remaining militants fled into the forest and a search was under way. Special forces knew their general location and were preparing to mortar the area before storming it, Tolchinsky said.
