Triple suicide strikes in Chechnya left nine people dead and over 20 injured as the Russian Muslim region celebrated the end of Ramadan.

Hot on the heels of the US operation that ended in the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, Russia says it has killed another al-Qaeda leader.

A Kremlin investigation is likely to focus on Islamist militants from the volatile North Caucasus as terror returns to the Russian capital.

A suspected suicide bomber has struck at Russia's busiest airport, killing at least 35 and challenging Kremlin efforts to crush armed insurgency.

The simmering insurgency in Russia's north Caucasus has exploded into open revolt. Daily attacks and bomb explosions have become part of life.

The war is over. Russia on Friday announced the end of counterterrorist operations in Chechnya, which should see the withdrawal of 20 000 troops.

Eleven Russian soldiers were killed in an ambush in Chechnya, an unidentified official at the Russian forces headquarters in the separatist republic was quoted as saying by the Interfax-AVN news agency early on Tuesday. A Russian armored vehicle then came to the men's rescue, but Chechen fighters also blew it up and started shooting at its passengers as well, the official added.

Rescuers, labouring in the pre-dawn cold on Saturday, searched the rubble for survivors of a suicide bombing in Chechnya that killed at least 46 people and injured dozens more.