A security forces officer stands behind the bodies of gunmen killed in a clash south of the Dagestani regional capital Makhachkala, on Sunday, June 28. AP NAZRAN, Russia (AP) - Militants firing machine guns and grenades ambushed a police convoy Saturday and killed 9 officers in Russia's violent North Caucasus, officials said.

Another 10 officers were wounded in the attack in Ingushetia's district of Sundja, which borders Chechnya, regional investigative committee spokeswoman Svetlana Gorbakova said.

Three of the four police vehicles in the convoy burned completely, the regional Interior Ministry said.

The officers had been traveling from Chechnya in a joint anti-terrorism operation launched after a suicide bombing last week left Ingush President Yunus Bek Yevkurov badly injured and killed three of his bodyguards.

Yevkurov remains in serious but stable condition in a Moscow hospital. A former military intelligence officer, Yevkurov was seen as uncompromising on the militant insurgency and corruption that have plagued Ingushetia and other provinces in North Caucasus region along Russia's southern border.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov claimed the Kremlin asked him to oversee the security operation in Chechnya and Ingushetia, prompting some analysts to say Kadyrov favors merging the regions. The two regions share close ethnic and cultural ties, and were one province during Soviet times.

The Kremlin credits Kadyrov with ushering in relative stability to Chechnya by eliminating the large-scale insurgency. Critics say the price paid is too high, with Chechens living in fear of Kadyrov's forces, which have been accused of kidnappings and extra-judicial killings.

While violence has largely died down in Chechnya, a separatist Islamic insurgency mounts almost daily attacks on officials in other provinces of the North Caucasus.