MOSCOW, July 21 (RIA Novosti) - Three police officers were shot dead while on patrol early on Monday morning in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, a police source has said.
"The bodies of the police officers were discovered at around 2:00 a.m. [22:00 GMT] in the republic's Naursk District," the source said, adding that the attackers had taken the officers' weapons - two assault rifles and two pistols, plus ammunition - before fleeing the scene.
Chechnya saw two Kremlin-led military campaigns in the 1990s and early 2000s against separatist forces. Although the active phase of the operation has been completed, frequent attacks by militants still occur in Chechnya and neighboring republics.
