A group of about 20 rebels attacked a village in Chechnya's Nozhai-Yurt district near the border with Dagestan late Friday night. The rebels blew up the local police station and took three police officers hostage, the Interfax news agency said, citing sources in the republic's Interior Department.

At the same time, one policeman was killed, another two injuredwhen a car detonated a land mine near a village in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan district.

On Saturday, 12 Russian servicemen were wounded when a landmineplanted by Chechen rebels several kilometers from the village of Bamut in Chechnya went off as a Russian convoy was passing by, a source in the headquarters of Russian Forces in the North Caucasussaid.

Experts here believe the rebels' attacks in some of Chechnya's districts might be aimed at distracting attention from possible new large-scale border crossings.

A Russian military source said on Saturday that at least 110 Chechen rebels had been killed or wounded in the armed clashes between Russian troops and Chechen rebels, which broke out on Thursday near the Ingush village of Galashki.

Russian forces, in the clashes, have lost 17 soldiers, including two pilots whose Mi-24 helicopter gunship was shot down by a portable anti-aircraft missile in Thursday's fierce fighting in Galashki.

The Ingush Interior Ministry said Saturday that the administrative border between Chechnya and Ingushetia had been almost closed on Saturday morning in a bid to cut off the rebels' retreat to Chechnya from Ingushetia.

The ministry said no traffic and personnel, including law enforcement officials, are allowed through the checkpoints betweenthe two regions.

(Xinhua News Agency September 29, 2002)