According to a preliminary investigation, a group of unidentified assailants driving a black Russian Lada sedan opened fire at 11:50 a.m. Moscow time (07:50 a.m. GMT) on a military convoy leaving a small village in the Malgobek district of Ingushetia.
"The same group presumably attacked a police patrol car in the same area an hour earlier," the source said. "One policeman was hospitalized with gunshot wounds."
Police are suspecting that the assailants could be also involved in two attacks on police patrol cars in the same area on July 2 when two police officers were killed and five wounded.
During the first five months of 2008 Ingushetia saw a sharp increase in assaults on law enforcement and military personnel. In 53 attacks a total of 12 police officers and four servicemen were killed and 46 law enforcement officers and 11 soldiers were injured.
In comparison only 15 similar attacks occurred during the same period in Ingushetia last year.
