21.   Interfax news agency quoted military sources as saying that interior ministry troops were to try and take rebel positions Friday.

22.   Interior ministry troops are supposed to be in charge in the Chechen capital.

23.   Interior ministry troops will remain in Garm.

24.   Interfax said tanks, parachute troops and interior ministry troops had crossed the Chechen border.

25.   A defence ministry spokesman confirmed to AFP that no ministry troops were still stationed in Chechnya, but could not say when the last soldiers had left.

26.   A command spokesman, quoted by Interfax news agency, said two of those killed were interior ministry troops and the third was a federal army soldier.

27.   A senior Russian security official denied Russian media reports that the rebels had executed six interior ministry troops they were holding captive.

28.   After the crowd overran the grounds, interior ministry troops rushed to the building.

29.   All Afghan defence ministry troops who had helped seize the Shahi Kot valley withdrew from Paktia Friday, the Afghan Islamic Press reported.

30.   An Interfax correspondent on the scene said the bridge was virtually destroyed by the blast and interior ministry troops later sealed off the area.