One Russian solider died and eight were injured during fighting today in a village east of Grozny, the Russian agency ITAR-TASSreported, quoting officials in the north Caucasus.
The Russians did not say whether any Chechen rebel casualties had occurred during the fighting which took place in the village of Kurchaloi.
Russian soldiers blocked off three villages to the south of Grozny as they searched for soldiers missing in the region.
No civilian vehicle was allowed in or out of the villages situated at the entrance to the Argun gorges, in the southern mountainous region of Chechnya, the agency said.
Earlier today two Russian soldiers taken hostage two months ago were freed in a special police operation in neighbouring Ingushetia, ITAR-TASSreported.
The two soldiers, from Urus-Martan, southwest of Grozny, had been taken hostage in by rebels who apparently intended to exchange their captives for guerrilla fighters arrested by Russian troops, the report said.
The two men were discovered and freed in a police raid in the republic of Ingushetia, on Chechnya's western border.
AFP