The Moscow Times reports:

Federal forces clashed on Monday with a group of Chechen rebels holed up in the republic's southern mountains, with casualties on both sides, Itar-Tass reported. A group of rebels answering directly to Chechen separatist leader Doku Umarov were battling federal troops in the mountains of the Vedensky district in southern Chechnya. It was unclear whether Umarov was among them. "Some bandits have been eliminated, and some are wounded," an unidentified law enforcement source told Itar-Tass. Elsewhere in Chechnya at least 11 police officers were wounded in different clashes, officials said. In one attack late Sunday, several unidentified gunmen fired automatic weapons at a police patrol vehicle in the provincial capital, Grozny, wounding all five officers inside, Chechnya's branch of the federal Interior Ministry said in a statement. The officers were hospitalized and the attackers fled, the statement said. Early Monday, a local officer was injured when an unidentified attacker fired a grenade launcher at his car in Grozny. Two more officers were wounded in a land mine explosion in the city Monday. Three policemen were also wounded in a rebel ambush in the southern Shali region Monday, the regional Interior Ministry said. A federal army soldier was wounded in a bombing attack in the southern Shatoi region Sunday, the ministry said.