Chechen rebels kill 2 Russian officers -Interfax

GROZNY, Russia, Apr 8 (Reuters) Chechen rebels killed two commanders of Russian federal forces during a gun battle, Interfax news agency said today, damaging the Kremlin's continued assertion it has quashed the uprising.

Two wars between the federal forces and rebels since 1994 have virtually destroyed the southern Russian republic of Chechnya. The Kremlin now presents the conflict as finished despite the continuation of sporadic fighting.

Pro-Kremlin leaders have estimated there are only a few hundred rebels left hiding in the mountains and in February Sergei Ivanov, then Russia's Defence Minister, upheld Chechnya as an example of how big powers can quell Islamic insurgencies.

But Interfax quoted a security source saying two officers had died yesterday in a battle between loyalists and rebels.

''In the exchange of gunfire an officer and a platoon commander in the Sever battalion died,'' Interfax wrote.

Reuters could not immediately confirm this with the Russian military. The source told Interfax a special operation to trap the rebels had started.

REUTERS PDM PM1910