Two militants were killed in a special police operation in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district on Monday. An operation to track down three other militants continued on Monday, a Dagestani Interior Ministry official told Interfax.
He said a special operation was launched after information was obtained suggesting that a criminal group could be hiding in the village of Kadyr-Otar. A clash occurred with a group of presumably five militants when policemen entered a house for a check.
A policeman was seriously wounded in the operation. He was taken to a hospital in Khasavyurt.
In a separate development gunmen opened fire on police Sunday in Dagestan, killing one officer and wounding another, Associated Press reported citing republican officials. On Monday the second police officer died of injuries sustained in the clash.
The shooting occurred when police stopped a car for a check on the outskirts of the regional capital Makhachkala. Its passengers fired Kalashnikovs at police, who returned fire, killing one assailant, said Dagestan’s Interior Minister Adylgirey Magomedtagirov.
Two other people in the car “a man, who was wounded in the clash, and a woman” were captured, Magomedtagirov told reporters.
Magomedtagirov said the gunmen apparently belonged to a local criminal gang led by Rasul Makasharipov.
Dagestan, a Caspian Sea coast region east of Chechnya, has been plagued by shootings, bombings and other violence, including attacks on top officials. Some of the violence has spilled over from Chechnya, and some has been committed by local criminal gangs or Islamic militants.
Mos News