Multiple attacks claimed by IS on police in Chechnya

MOSCOW: Armed assailants injured several policemen in attacks in three locations in the Russian republic of Chechnya on Monday, as the Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had launched probes into three separate attacks against police, including a failed suicide bombing. In the first attack on Monday morning, two men entered the district police department in the town of Shali and wounded a pair of policemen with knives, investigators said in a statement.

The two assailants were shot dead, Chechnya’s interior ministry said. In the village of Mesker-Yurt north of Shali, a man with a backpack attempted a suicide bombing near a police post but "police officers and civilians were not harmed by the blast," the Investigative Committee said.

The third incident occurred on the outskirts of the Chechen capital Grozny, where a man attempted to run over a traffic policeman in his car and subsequently hit two more officers as he was chased.

"The criminals were neutralised," the Investigative Committee said. IS claimed responsibility for the attacks, the SITE monitoring group reported, citing the Jihadists’ main propaganda agency Amaq. "Fighters from the Islamic State attacked Chechen police officers and elements in Grozny and Shali in Mesker-Yurt," Amaq said, according to SITE.