In the first attack which occurred at 2:00 p.m. Moscow time on Friday an UAZ vehicle carrying four Interior Ministry servicemen came under gun fire from a passing Zhiguli car on the outskirts of the village Ekazhevo near Nazran, the province's largest city. A Russian officer received minor wounds, and was given medical assistance on the site.
"An unknown sniper attacked a police outpost near the village Surkhakhi in the Nazran District at 12:20 p.m. on Friday," the source also said, adding that a contract soldier was hospitalized with wounds as a result.
The volatile province has seen a surge in militant attacks against police and civilians in recent months. Random fighting and terrorist attacks also occur in neighboring Chechnya, devastated by two Moscow-led military campaigns against separatist regimes in the 1990s- early 2000s.
