MOSCOW, Nov 3: Nine people were killed when Chechen rebels shot down a Russian helicopter near the capital of the breakaway republic on Sunday, a Russian military commander said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

The MI-8 helicopter was struck by a ground-to-air missile fired from a building near Grozny, Boris Podoprigora, deputy commander of Russian forces in Chechnya, said.

News of the attack came shortly after Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said he has ordered a halt to a planned army withdrawal from the rebel republic in response to last month’s Moscow hostage crisis in which 119 civilians died.—AFP