The Interior Ministry in the North Caucasus republic, which neighbors Chechnya, said gunmen in a Soviet-made silver-colored Lada car opened fire on a police vehicle at about 2:00 p.m. Moscow time (10:00 a.m. GMT) Tuesday. Police officers returned fire and managed to "neutralize" the gunmen in the ensuing skirmish.
"One of the gunmen was killed, and one injured and detained by the police," the ministry said. "Sources said they were responsible for the killings of police officers in Ingushetia."
The source said law-enforcement officials knew the names of the gunmen, but did not disclose them until the investigation was complete.
The incident is the sixth targeting law-enforcement and other officials in the republic in the week from August 23 to 29. Each time, the same silver Lada was involved, the source said.
The latest attack occurred in Nazran, Ingushetia's largest city, Monday night, when a former police chief of an anti-organized crime unit was gunned down in his car.
A district police chief in Ingushetia, Akhmed Murzabekov, was shot three times August 23 but survived.
The attacks came against the background of a campaign in the region to give militants the chance to surrender after Russia's terrorist number one, Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school massacre and other atrocities, was killed July 10.
The term for the voluntary surrender of militants in the North Caucasus has been extended until September 30.
Although authorities have announced that the active phase of the counter-terrorism operation in neighboring Chechnya is over, violence has continued to affect the North Caucasus as a whole.
Three policemen lost their lives and two others were seriously wounded in two separate attacks in Ingushetia on Saturday, and two officers were injured in Chechnya Sunday.
