Suicide blast hits police in Chechnya

An emergency official says a suicide bomber has wounded three police officers in the capital of Russia's war-scarred Chechnya province.

An emergency official says a suicide bomber has wounded three police officers in the capital of Russia's war-scarred Chechnya province.

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Southern Russia Emergency Situations Ministry spokesman Marat Prokopenkov said on Saturday that the bomber set off his explosives close to a police patrol near a school in Grozny. He said three officers were hospitalized, two of whom were severely wounded. Police at the scene initially said it appeared three police were killed.

Separately, the Interior Ministry in neighboring Dagestan province said security forces besieged a home and killed four alleged militants Saturday.

Chechnya and nearby provinces in southern Russia's restive, heavily Muslim Caucasus region have experienced an upsurge in violence in recent months.