In another incident, two soldiers from the interior ministry's elite Omon force died when their vehicle hit a landmine, the news agency reported. Another soldier was killed and three were wounded in a shoot-out with rebels in Grozny, the Russian AVN military news agency said. Russia sent troops back to Chechnya in September 1999 to crush separatist rebels, but they have been frequently targeted in guerrilla attacks. But humanitarian organisations say civilians are suffering the most, and describe their conditions as hellish. The Chechen rebels won de facto independence from Russia in a brutal 1994-96 war.
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