Nine Russian servicemen died when their vehicle ran over a mine in southern Chechnya and rebel Chechens lying in ambush nearby opened fire, military sources said. Five other servicemen were seriously wounded in the incident late Saturday, the sources at federal military headquarters for the Northern Caucasus at Rostov-on-Don, in southern Russia, said as quoted by the Interfax news agency. The rebels opened fire with grenade-launchers and automatic weapons from the right bank of the Argun river after an explosive device had caused the vehicle to stop. The servicemen, part of an engineering team, died in the ensuing gunfight, the sources said. It was not yet known how many rebels were killed. The defence ministry in Moscow confirmed the report, Interfax said. Six Russian servicemen were killed in two separate incidents in Chechnya earlier on Saturday, three in a landmine blast and three in a bomb attack. Mine blasts and low-level attacks continue to take a daily toll on Russian forces and pro-Russian administrators in the breakaway republic where Moscow sent in troops to put down a separatist insurgency in October 1999. The Kremlin has called a presidential election in Chechnya on October 5, arguing that the counter-insurgency campaign has been successful. (AFP)