"On Friday, a militant facing arrest in Groznys café Orion blew himself up with a hand grenade," the source said.

According to him, the militant and a police operative died on the spot from the wounds inflicted by the explosion.

"In addition, two oth

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er police officers were hospitalized with shell fragment wounds and an aide to the chief federal inspector for the Chechen Republic under the Presidents envoy in the Southern Federal District was administered medical aid on the spot," the source pointed out.

A spokesman for the joint press center of the Regional Operations Headquarters (ROH) in charge of the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus told RIA Novosti that law enforcers had detained a militant from the bandit group headed by Shamil Basayev (one of the leaders of the Chechen separatists). The man is thought to have taken part in a terrorist attack carried out in Grozny last summer.

"On Friday, law enforcers carried out an operation to verify information they had earlier gained from local residents. In the course of the operation they arrested a 22-year-old resident of Grozny, an active member of a band group headed by Yunadi Turchayev, one of the units under direct command of Shamil Basayev," the spokesman said.

According to him, it has been established that the detained militant had personally taken part in the killing of Chechen police officers in a terrorist act committed in Grozny on August 21, 2004.

On August 21, 2004, six Chechen policemen and four interior troops died as a result of the bandits attack in Grozny. Twelve servicemen of the federal interior troops were hospitalized in the incident.

In Chechnyas Shalinskydistrict unidentified gunmen shot down the head of the inter-district unit of the Operative Search Office with the Interior Ministrys Chief Directorate for the Southern Federal District as well as one of the units officers, a source in the Chechen Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti.

According to him, the incident took place when the two officers were leaving the local mosque.

"The law enforcers died on the spot from the wounds inflicted by the attackers," the source pointed out.

The ROH spokesman told RIA Novosti that a base of the militants as well as several arms cashes have been detected in Chechnya over the past few days.

The militants base incorporated a dug-out shelter, two tents and a cooking area.

"The federal forces also found a cache at the base containing explosives, electrical detonators, ammunition, camouflage uniform, medicines and food," the spokesman pointed out.

In addition, according to the ROH spokesman, law enforcers found a cache with explosives, weapons and ammunition near the village of Chechen-Aul in the Grozny district.

The third cache was discovered in a forest near the village of Noiber in the Gudermes district. The cache contained five light anti-tank grenade launchers, unguided rocket projectile, two 85-mm artillery shells, three 120-mm artillery shells, two mines, 58 grenade-launcher rounds, hand grenades, ammunition and TNT explosive.

GROZNY, November 27 (RIA Novosti)