MAKHACHKALA, June 28 (RIA Novosti) - Four militants and one soldier were killed in a nighttime shootout between militants and interior troops in Russia's North Caucasus Republic of Daghestan, a spokesman for the local interior ministry said on Sunday.
"This morning Daghestani security forces opened mortar fire on a forest between the villages of Kakashura and Gubden in the Karabudakhkent district [south of the capital Makhachkala] where militants were hiding, who according to available information were engaged in a shootout and killed one soldier," the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that after the mortar fire, the security forces entered the forest and found the bodies of four militants.
Large-scale military operations are over in the North Caucasus republic, but separatists continue to carry out raids on federal troops and Kremlin-backed police and authorities. Violence often spills into neighboring Russian regions.
