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Chechen police killed by militants in Grozny Russia Chechnya: Deadly rebel attack rocks Grozny
(about 1 hour later)
Heavily-armed militants have killed several traffic police officers in the Chechen capital, Grozny, and stormed a multi-storey building and a school. Rebel gunmen have shot their way into the heavily fortified Chechen capital, Grozny, in a night-time attack which left as many as 16 people dead.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said the officers had been killed when they tried to stop the gunmen's cars. Arriving at 01:00 (22:00 GMT Wednesday) in cars, they fired on a traffic police checkpoint before attacking a media building and a school.
The building, a publishing house, burned as security forces fought with the militants. An Islamist group said it had launched a suicide attack to avenge attacks by security forces on Muslim women.
Grozny has been relatively calm in recent years, after a security crackdown under Mr Kadyrov. Chechnya's Moscow-backed president said the situation was under control.
Separatists in Chechnya have fought two wars with Russian forces since the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. Ramzan Kadyrov said none of the attackers had escaped.
The attack on Grozny came hours before President Vladimir Putin was due to give his annual state of the nation address. Mr Putin launched the second war against Chechnya's militants in 1999. The controversial Chechen strongman has suppressed rebel activity in Chechnya since Russia ousted the separatist government there at the beginning of the century.
The attackers reportedly opened fire on a traffic police post early on Thursday, killing at least three officers. Reports say the gunmen were wearing police uniforms. The attack was a rare breach of the heavy security which surrounds Grozny.
They then attacked a a building housing local media, known as Press House. Security forces surrounded the building with the militants trapped inside, and images showed the block in flames. Russian President Vladimir Putin said from Moscow he was confident Chechen security forces could handle the militants by themselves.
Gunfire was reported at the building and Mr Kadyrov said seven militants had been killed. This is the most serious violence in Grozny for some time and will be another worry for President Putin, amid a serious downturn in the Russian economy, the BBC's Sarah Rainsford reports from Moscow.
A Chechen official quoted by Interfax news agency said 10 security police had died in the operation against the gunmen. Mr Putin prides himself on bringing stability to Chechnya after two bloody, separatist wars there since the break-up of the Soviet Union, our correspondent adds.
Russia's interior ministry said the operation was still under way and Mr Kadyrov was quoted as saying that a number of gunmen had been holed up inside a school. In flames
A reporter for Ekho Moskvy radio said fighting was going on at the school, close to the city centre, and she could hear gunfire and explosions. Three traffic policemen were killed as they tried to stop the gunmen's cars, Mr Kadyrov said.
The militants' motive was unclear but an unverified video posted on the internet on Wednesday said the attack was being carried out on the orders of rebel commander Amir Khamzat to punish security officers for harassing Muslim women. Nine militants died in the subsequent fighting, the Chechen leader said.
In October a suicide bomb attack in the Chechen capital killed five police officers and left at least 12 people injured. According to the Russian government, a further four people died and 21 were injured during the fighting.
Inhabitants of the city woke to the sight of smoke rising from the gutted shell of the publishing house, where both Chechen and federal Russian media had offices.
Covered stalls at a market were also burned in the fighting.
There were no reports of any children being inside the school when the rebels seized it.
Mobile phone videos posted during the night attested to the ferocity of the fighting.
An Associated Press reporter saw the publishing house in flames and heard the continuing sound of gunfire before dawn.
The same reporter also saw the body of someone in civilian clothing in the street near the building.
"Not one bandit managed to get out," Mr Kadyrov later announced. "I directly ran the operation myself."
In a grainy video posted on YouTube, a gunman said he and a group of others had attacked the city in a "revenge operation" to avenge Muslim women harassed by the security forces.
He said the attack had been carried out on the instructions of Chechen rebel figure Aslan Byutukayev, an associate of Doku Umarov, the rebel leader believed to have been killed earlier this year.
The attack on Grozny came hours before President Putin gave his annual state of the nation address at the Kremlin.
Dmitry Trenin, who heads the Carnegie Moscow Center, wrote in a Twitter post that the night attack in Grozny looked "senseless except as an attempt to embarrass Putin hours before his annual address".
Are you in Grozny? Did you see the attack? Send us your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.Are you in Grozny? Did you see the attack? Send us your experiences to haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.
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