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MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities say six suspected militants and six soldiers were killed during a firefight in the volatile North Caucasus region.
The National Anti-terrorism Committee said in a statement Friday that armed militants, including two with suicide belts, tried to break into a National Guard base in Chechnya early Friday.
The National Guard, a powerful new security agency created last year by President Vladimir Putin, said the attack took place in heavy fog.
The Amaq news agency, which is linked to the Islamic State group, said "six soldiers of the caliphate" were killed in the attack.
There was no independent confirmation of IS involvement.
The Kremlin has relied on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to stabilize the situation in the mainly Muslim region in the wake of two bloody separatist wars that followed the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
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