NALCHIK, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - An officer was injured when two gunmen fired shots at police in Nalchik, the capital of North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, shortly before midnight, a regional interior ministry department said on Sunday.
“At about 23:50 Moscow time on Saturday [7:50 p.m. GMT], two unidentified assailants opened fire at patrol officers of the city’s police department. An officer was injured. One of the attackers was killed when police returned fire,” the department said in a statement.
The second attacker fled. A special operation to detain him is underway.
The Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to the republic of Chechnya, has spread across the North Caucasus in recent years. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are reported regularly in the neighboring republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday demanded that law enforcers and special services resolutely rebuke extremists and criminal formations in Russia’s North Caucasus.
