Additional police detachments were sent on 15 December to Daghestan\'s Tsunta Raion to try to apprehend a group of some 25-30 militants, said by Russian officials to be Chechens, who seized four hostages, including a doctor, in the predominantly Avar-populated village of Shauri earlier that day. Daghestan\'s Interior Minister Adilgirei Magomedtagirov also headed for the site of the abductions. The militants then split into several groups and retreated westward toward the internal border between Daghestan and Chechnya. The hunt for them was complicated by adverse weather. Turan reported that the raiders reappeared during the morning of 16 December in the village of Galatali, where they seized further hostages and then retreated into the mountains after an exchange of fire with Russian troops in which seven of the militants were killed. Daghestan parliament Chairman Mukhu Aliev said on 16 December that the gunmen are definitely Chechens and that they entered Daghestan from Chechnya. (RFE/RL)