CHECHNYA: The Russian Interior Ministry's branch in Chechnya says rebels planted explosive device killed two police officers and a civilian.It says in a statement that the explosion occurred Wednesday near the village of Belgatoi in the Vedeno region in southern Chechnya's mountains. Investigators believe the explosive device was attached to a vehicle the victims were riding in.The Kremlin last month formally ended a federal counter terrorism operation in Chechnya, which has seen two bloody separatist wars in the past 15 years. But insurgents continue to stage sporadic attacks on troops and authorities in Chechnya despite increased stability under Kremlin-backed regional President Ramzan Kadyrov.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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