Chechen separatist rebels killed 11 Russian soldiers and wounded five others in a double ambush in the restive province, Interfax News Agency said on Tuesday.  

It quoted a source in the military command as saying the rebels attacked the troops after their vehicle hit a mine and ran off the road near the town of Urus-Martan on Monday.

An armored troop carrier that went to their aid then ran into another mine and came under fire from the rebels.

"As a result 11 Interior ministry troops were killed, five were wounded and one is missing," the source said. The Interfax report could not be immediately confirmed with officials.

In 2000 Russian troops ended a short-lived independence for Chechnya won in the first war with Russia in 1994-96. But Chechen separatists have kept up a guerrilla war against Russian forces.

Chechnya's pro-Moscow president, Akhmad Kadyrov, was killed on May 9 by a bomb at a tightly guarded stadium in the regional capital Grozny.

(China Daily May 18, 2004)