Eight dead in Chechen bus blast
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Russian troops continue to be engaged with Chechen rebels.
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ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) -- Eight people died in an explosion of a Chechen bus, officials said Friday, and Russian media reported that six servicemen were seriously injured in another land mine blast in the Chechen capital.
The bus was carrying construction workers from Russia's main military base near the capital Grozny, along with people it had picked up en route to the city, when it exploded on a mine Thursday.
In addition to the eight dead, nine people were injured, said Alexander Lemeshev, a duty officer at the southern regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry.
The mine was hidden in a pile of trash -- as was a mine that exploded in the October district of Grozny, injuring six Russian servicemen, TVS television reported.
The blasts, blamed on Chechen rebels, came less than two weeks after Russian authorities held a referendum in Chechnya on a new constitution that firmly cements the region's status as part of Russia and which the Kremlin advertised as the beginning of a peace process.
Election officials say 96 percent of voters approved the document, though rights advocates are skeptical of the claim and say the referendum is no substitute for talks with the rebels -- something Moscow has ruled out.
Chechnya has seen two wars in the last decade.
The 1994-96 conflict ended when Russian troops pulled out after a 20-month campaign, leaving the republic de facto independent. Russian forces returned in 1999, following rebel incursions into a neighboring region and a series of deadly apartment house bombings in Russia blamed on Chechen fighters.
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