Seventeen militants were killed on Monday in combined air and ground strikes on a terrorist camp in Russia's North Caucasus region, a spokesman for the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said.
The strikes were part of an ongoing operation to capture terrorists thought to be behind a suicide bombing at Moscow's busiest airport in January that left 37 people dead.
"As a result of a precision airstrike and a ground operation, a terrorist camp that trained suicide bombers, some of whom have committed terrorist attacks in [the republics of] North Ossetia and Ingushetia, has been destroyed," spokesman Nikolai Sentsov said.
"According to preliminary data, at least 17 militants have been killed...and two suspects in the Domodedovo blast have been detained," the official said.
Two Russian Federal Security operatives and a police officer were also killed in the operation.
Russia has been fighting terrorists in its volatile southern republics for over a decade. Terrorist attacks are common in the mainly-Muslim region and regularly stray to the Russian capital.
MOSCOW, March 28 (RIA Novosti)
