Up to nine Chechen police officers have been gunned down in the Russian region of Ingushetia, Russian news agencies say.
The police officers were killed when their convoy came under attack in the city of Nazran on Saturday, the Interfax news agency said, quoting security forces and the interior ministry.
"As a result of the attack, nine police from Chechnya were killed and nine more were badly wounded," Alexei Vorobyev, the head of Ingushetia's security council, said.
The Chechen police forces were in neighbouring Ingushetia to conduct a joint special operation against alleged anti-government fighters, Interfax and other agencies said.
Concerns have grown in recent weeks about the stability of Ingushetia, one of Russia's most violent regions.
Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the Ingushetian leader, was gravely wounded when a suicide car bombing hit his armoured car on June 22, and he remains in hospital.
After the attempt on Yevkurov's life, Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian president, ordered Chechen security forces to assist Ingushetia in batting fighters there.
Islamist fighters are battling pro-Kremlin authorities and Russian security forces in a low-level insurgency in the overwhelmingly Muslim regions of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia.
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