Nine Chechen police killed in Russia's Ingushetia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Nine Chechen policemen sent to crush an insurgency in the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia were gunned down Saturday, Interfax reported, intensifying the cycle of violence now unfolding in the region.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov ordered his troops across the border into Ingushetia to avenge a suicide bomb attack against fellow Kremlin appointee in the region, Ingush leader Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who is fighting for his life in hospital.

The militants ambushed a convoy of Kadyrov's troops on Saturday, firing automatic weapons and grenade launchers in one of the deadliest attacks in the volatile North Caucasus region in recent years.

The head of Chechnya's interior ministry, Ruslan Alkhanov vowed retribution for the ambush. "We will take all measures to hunt down and destroy these bandits," Itar Tass quoted him as saying.

The Chechen death toll may rise as 10 other policemen are being treated for severe injuries. The cars in the convoy, which was carrying 35 troops, were left burning as the Chechen troops scrambled to return fire into the surrounding forests, Itar Tass reported.

"TAKE NO CAPTIVES"

The June 22 suicide attack on the Ingush leader prompted Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to order Kadyrov to hunt down militants in Ingushetia, giving him a free hand to carry out military operations outside of Chechnya for the first time.

Both regions are in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region in southern Russia, where the Kremlin is facing an insurgency that has intensified in recent months, striking at local officials and security personnel.

"We will take no captives, we will destroy them. As long as they exist there will be blood," Kadyrov told Reuters after receiving permission for cross-border operations.