The Associated Press reports:

A roadside bomb killed a prison guard and wounded four other people as they drove in a van transporting suspected criminals in the capital of violence-wracked Chechnya, an Interior Ministry official said. The wounded included several of the prisoners in the van, said the duty officer, who was not authorized to speak to the media.

A police officer and four militants were killed Sunday in a gunbattle in Grozny, officials said.

Neighboring provinces in Russia's restive North Caucasus have also been plagued by violence, spilling over from Chechnya or connected to local militants and criminal gangs. On Sunday, police blocked the mountainous village of Gimry in the province of Dagestan, which borders Chechnya to the east, and detained several suspected militants, Russian NTV television reported. The security sweep was launched in response to the killing of a provincial lawmaker.