MOSCOW, Aug 24: Two senior Russian officers were killed when their armoured vehicle was hit by explosives in Russia’s restive Chechnya on Sunday, Interfax news agency reported, two days after a gun attack in a nearby province.

Russian security officials have said they expect a rise in rebel attacks after Russia launched a military incursion into Georgia, an ex-Soviet republic neighbouring Chechnya, to crush its attempt to retake the breakaway region of South Ossetia.

In the latest incident, a major and a lieutenant-colonel died of their wounds and two other officers were injured after a bomb and gun attack on their three-vehicle convoy near the village of Agishty.

Gunman also fired on the house of a member of Russia’s upper parliamentary chamber in southern Ingushetia province, but no one was injured, Interfax reported on Sunday.—Reuters