IS claims attack near Chechnya presidential palace

As Russian authorities are locked in a simmering conflict with radical militants

MOSCOW: The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a knife attack on police near the presidential palace in Chechnya, where Russian authorities are locked in a simmering conflict with radical militants.

On Sunday a man stabbed a police officer and an officer of the National Guard after he was stopped while driving near the residence of Ramzan Kadyrov, the strongman leader of the Russian republic.

The assailant, a Chechen born in 1997 according to police, was shot dead.

Police said in a statement that the details of the attack were being established.

The injured police officer was in a serious but not life-threatening condition, another statement said, without providing information about the National Guard.

Late Sunday, IS claimed the attack, according to SITE Intelligence which monitors militant activities worldwide.

The assailant "managed to reach the door of the presidential headquarters of tyrant Ramzan Kadyrov," a statement from the group said, claiming the attacker had injured several officers with a machinegun.

Moscow battled separatists in two brutal wars in the 1990s in Chechnya and has since installed Kadyrov, a former separatist turned Kremlin loyalist, who rules the republic with an iron fist.

After the defeat of Chechen insurgents, Moscow remains in a conflict with militants from across the North Caucasus that has killed scores of civilians and police.