Nine dead in Russia shootout

NAZRAN, Russia, (AFP) - Four police officers and five armed militants were killed Thursday in a shootout in a volatile southern Russian province near Chechnya that also left four people wounded, police told AFP.

A police official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the militants were holed up in a residential building on the outskirts of Nazran, the main city of the north Caucasus republic of Ingushetia.

The police official provided no further details on the identities or number of the gunmen or on how the clash erupted.

Such skirmishes have become frequent in the region, among the poorest in Russia, following the conflict with separatist rebels in Chechnya that also destabilized other parts of the Russian North Caucasus.

Russian law enforcement and security personnel in the region have been targeted regularly in shooting and bomb attacks in recent years.