The Kremlin is struggling to contain a growing Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus and the violence has now spread from Chechnya to other mainly Muslim regions.
The government has credited Chechnya`s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, with maintaining a shaky peace, and security operations resulting in large numbers of deaths have become rare in recent years.
"According to preliminary information, seven militants have been killed," Kadyrov`s spokesman Alvi Karimov told reporters in the Chechen capital Grozny.
He said an aide to high-ranking Chechen warlord Hussein Gakayev was among those killed near Vedeno, a village some 50 km (31 miles) south-east of Grozny.
Russia wants to turn the North Caucasus, where the 2014 Winter Olympics are to be held, into a tourist destination and cut unemployment which exceeds 50 percent in parts of the region, according to official statistics. (*)
Editor: Kunto Wibisono
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
