Russian authorities say three police were killed and six injured in a clash with militants in the mountains near the Chechnya-Dagestan provincial border in southern Russia. Magomed Deniev, a spokesman for Chechnya\'s interior ministry, said police searching a forest on Monday night found the group of up to 10 unidentified fighters and engaged in a firefight. All the fighters managed to escape and hide in the forest. Dagestan is plagued by near-daily violence. Most of the violence is connected to an Islamic insurgency that originated in neighboring Chechnya and has spread across Russia\'s Caucasus region.