Three bandits were destroyed in the daytime on Thursday and another one early in the morning. The operation on rendering several more militants harmless is going on, the source said.
"One of the bandits was shot in one of the Niva cars in which the militants were driving. Three other militants were killed by the commandos during the fighting at the Obilnoye village", the source added.
At present the law-enforcement officers are engaged in the search for the rest of the bandits. "Four choppers with paratroopers on board are barraging in the sky above the area where the gang's remnants are tentatively hiding," the source said.
As head of the Public Relations Center of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Colonel Sergei Ignatchenko said earlier, in the forest area not far from Obilnoye village of the Stavropol Territory the commandos of the FSB and the Interior Ministry of Russia had fully blocked a seven-man group of bandits.
"Two powerful explosive devices were found in Niva cars abandoned by the bandits. The sappers managed to defuse a 20-kg bomb. To defuse the other explosive device consisting of 7 kg of trotyl special equipment was required which had already been sent to the special operation area," Ignatchenko said.
According to him, the blocked gang, apparently, consists of well-armed and specially trained militants as during the retreat the bandits planted booby traps in line with all military tactics rules.
On Wednesday the bandit group attacked policemen in the Georgiyevsky district. One police officer was killed and another one wounded. On Thursday's morning the bandits ran into a police detail. A shootout began as a result of which one more policeman was killed and still another wounded.
