Protesters clash with riot police in troubled Ingushetia; police fire shots over heads

NAZRAN, Russia (AP) - Protesters unhappy with the leadership in the troubled Russian region of Ingushetia clashed with riot police Saturday, throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails. Police responded by firing live rounds over protesters' heads.

No injuries were reported but dozens were believed to have been detained, and with the North Caucasus region already tense, the situation threatened to spiral out of control. A day earlier, government forces launched a large-scale security operation in Ingushetia in response to a surge in violence and abductions there.

Some 300 people tried to gather in a central square in Ingushetia's main city, Nazran, but heavily armed riot police blocked side streets leading to the square. Protesters - many of whom appeared to be young men - then began throwing rocks and incendiary devices at the police who fired shots into the air before moving into the crowd, beating people viciously and hauling them into waiting police vans.

An Associated Press reporter saw at least half a dozen people forcibly detained and dozens more people were believed arrested. Police had no immediate comment on the incident.

Ekho Moskvy radio reported that two of its correspondents had been detained by security agents.

The "preventive" operation that began Friday in several districts of Ingushetia by regional law-enforcement bodies together with federal interior and security forces involved stepped-up identity checks and searches for militants and their arms caches in abandoned buildings and other places.

Much of the violence is seen as a spillover from neighboring Chechnya, where Russia has fought two wars against separatist rebels.

Government critics attribute the growing number of attacks in the region - mostly against police - to anger fueled by abductions, beatings, unlawful arrests and killings of suspects by government forces and local allied paramilitaries.

Many Ingush are also intensely unhappy with regional President Murad Zyazikov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and a former KGB agent.

The poor, mostly Muslim republic of fewer than 500,000 people shares the language and culture of Chechnya, and its population - which includes a large number of refugees from Chechnya's fighting - is seen as sympathetic to separatists.

Federal officials last year tripled the number of law enforcement troops in Ingushetia in an effort to stem the violence.