Three Russian Interior Ministry officers were killed and another five wounded in a terrorist act in Chechnya`s Vedeno district, a local law enforcement source said by telephone Tuesday.

"A landmine went off Monday as Russian Interior Ministry officers were conducting reconnaissance two kilometers (1 mile) away from the village of Dyshne-Vedeno in Chechnya," the source said.

The blast hit a BTR-80 armored personnel carrier the officers were riding in at around 7:30 a.m. Moscow time, killing three. The five wounded soldiers were hospitalized.

A contract soldier was wounded in the same district June 25 when a homemade bomb went off beneath an armored personnel carrier. The attackers were never caught.

The latest attack on federal troops in Chechnya July 1 killed one soldier and wounded two.

Although Moscow has announced the end of the federal antiterrorism campaign in its troubled North Caucasus republic, occasional fighting still occurs there, sometimes spilling over into neighboring southern Russian regions in the form of attacks on police precincts and officials.
sections: Accidents