VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia - A nighttime attack this week in the Russian republic of Ingushetia by militants near the border of war-ravaged Chechnya killed 92 people and wounded 120, a local legislator said today.

Among the dead were 67 members of law enforcement agencies, said the legislator, who is a member of the regional government commission investigating the assault. He spoke on condition of anonymity.

The regional branch of Russia's Federal Security Service received information about the movements of an armed group about 30 minutes before the start of attacks late Monday night, the ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the deputy of the regional branch, Andrei Konin, as saying.

"But we did not expect such breadth - simultaneous attacks on 15 sites," Konin told ITAR-Tass.

An Ingush policeman who identified himself only by his first name, Musa, said the attacks appeared to be timed around the changing of the guard at the Kavkaz checkpoint, the biggest army and police traffic stop on the main highway between Chechnya and Ingushetia, shortly before midnight Monday.

Many soldiers were killed in ambushes, while police and other law enforcement officials were shot and killed after being called to work after an alert was issued, Musa said. The officials were stopped at checkpoints set up by the gunmen, who checked their identification papers. He said the gunmen disarmed and tied up some traffic policemen but spared their lives.

Flags flew at half-staff and all entertainment television programs in Ingushetia were canceled, as a three-day mourning period began today.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Ingushetia and said a regiment of Interior Ministry forces would be stationed there permanently, raising the Kremlin's troop commitment to the troubled Caucasus region.