Security forces in Chechnya say they have killed 22 rebels, including the alleged mastermind of the assassination of the republic's pro-Moscow President Akhmad Kadyrov.
In Grozny Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, son of the late president, said the military assault was carried out in the Vedeno district.
He said among those killed was a man named Suleiman, a top separatist who claimed responsibility for the stadium bombing last May that killed the elder Kadyrov and five other people.
Russian forces have been fighting separatists in Chechnya for most of the past decade. The rebels have claimed responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks, including the seizing of a school in southern Russia in September that killed 330, most of them children.
Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP.