MOSCOW: Russian authorities say six suspected militants and six soldiers were killed during a firefight in the volatile North Caucasus region.
The National Anti-terrorism Committee said in a statement Friday that armed militants, including two with suicide belts, tried to break into a National Guard base in Chechnya early Friday.
The National Guard, a powerful new security agency created last year by President Vladimir Putin, said the attack took place in heavy fog.
The Amaq news agency, which is linked to the Daesh group, said “six soldiers of the caliphate” were killed in the attack.
There was no independent confirmation of IS involvement.
The Kremlin has relied on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to stabilize the situation in the mainly Muslim region in the wake of two bloody separatist wars that followed the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
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6 militants, 6 soldiers killed in Chechnya firefight
6 militants, 6 soldiers killed in Chechnya firefight
White House area shut down after van breaches security barricade: police
WASHINGTON: A van smashed into a security barricade near the White House early Wednesday, police said, forcing a shutdown of the area in downtown Washington during morning rush hour.
Police did not immediately release information on the driver of the vehicle that crashed into a gate at Lafayette Square, just north of the White House and typically filled with tourists and office workers.
Washington has been under heightened security amid the US-Israel war on Iran.
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