Two Soldiers Die in Roadside Blast in Chechnya

Two soldiers died in the Shatoi district in the North Caucasus Republic of Chechnya after hitting an unidentified explosive device, the local police said on Sunday.

"At about 04:00 am Moscow time, two servicemen of Russia's Defense Ministry hit an unidentified explosive during special operations in the mountainous forested area in the South of Chechnya. The servicemen died of the wounds they received," the police said. RIA Novosti reported. An investigation is under way. Chechnya used to be a hotbed of radical Sunni Muslim insurgency in the North Caucasus since the 1990s, but the rebels were mostly forced out to neighboring regions in recent years by the ironfisted local government.