Chechnya: A helicopter crash in Chechnya killed 15 Russian servicemen, officials said yesterday, while local media said the victims came from the elite special forces.
Only one person survived the crash, which was caused by the pilot flying into a power cable, said Ruslan Atsayev, spokesman for the local interior ministry.
"It was definitely an accident. Witnesses said the helicopter was flying parallel to the power lines and then turned into them," he said. Eleven servicemen had previously been reported killed in the crash on Thursday afternoon.
The crash raised suspicions that guerrillas who are fighting Russian rule in the region had downed the helicopter, but rebel websites did not claim responsibility for any attack.
Earlier this week Russian troops killed the rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.
Mr Atsayev said the helicopter had been carrying border guards into Russia's main army base of Khankala just outside the Chechen capital of Grozny.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily said the corpses had been found with a type of pistol only issued to the elite units of the FSB security service.
The army's daily press release from Chechnya did not mention the crash.
* Thousands of protesters gathered outside an Istanbul mosque after Friday prayers to condemn the killing this week of Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov by Russian security forces.
The demonstrators carried banners and Chechen flags and held a symbolic funeral for the slain rebel leader at the Fatih mosque in central Istanbul, Muslim Turkey's largest city and home to thousands of Chechen nationals or their descendants.
The crowd carried pictures of Maskhadov and chanted "Murderer Putin, get out of the Caucasus" and "No to Putin in the Caucasus".
Anti-Russian protests took place in other Turkish cities yesterday, the state-run Anatolian news agency said. - (Reuters)