Six Russian soldiers were killed on Monday in a fierce firefight with rebels in the mountainous south of war-wracked Chechnya, the local military headquarters said. The clash occurred when guerrillas attacked troops patrolling the village of Dyshne-Vedeno, in the rebel’s mountain heartland about 50 km (30 miles) southeast of the regional capital Grozny. “As a result of fierce shooting, six bandits were killed, while the federal forces also took losses, with six killed and six injured,” Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the local military headquarters, told NTV television. Troops and police die almost daily in Chechnya, where rebels have been fighting Moscow for a decade. The Defence Ministry said two other soldiers were killed and four wounded in separate fighting over the weekend. The Chechen rebels, who are campaigning for an independent homeland in the southern Russian region, have markedly escalated violence in recent months despite a Moscow-backed peace plan. Full Story