Gunmen kill two policemen in southern Russia: RIA

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Two policemen were killed and five others were wounded on Tuesday in fresh attacks by gunmen in Russia's volatile southern region of Ingushetia, RIA news agency reported.

In two separate incidents, unidentified gunmen shot at police cars with Kalashnikov automatic rifles and escaped, RIA quoted a spokesman for the local chief prosecutor as saying.

In the first attack a policemen was killed and another wounded. In the second attack a policemen was killed and three policemen and one civilian were wounded.

The number of attacks against troops, police and officials in Ingushetia, an impoverished Muslim region bordering Chechnya, has been growing in the past few years.

Officials blame Islamic radicals for the attacks, while their critics say that social tensions caused by poor management of the region, arbitrary actions by authorities and widespread corruption were the true causes of the growing violence.

On August 2 gunmen killed one security services officer just days after two people were killed in a car blast in the regional capital Nazran.

(Writing by Oleg Shchedrov)