MAKHACHKALA, December 25 (RIA Novosti) – Three suspected militants were killed Wednesday in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, local police reported.
The armed men opened fire on police after their car was stopped for a routine ID check in the central town of Buynaksk, the report said.
Two law enforcement officers were wounded in the ensuing shootout with the militants, according to the report.
More than a decade after a war against Islamist separatists ended in the neighboring republic of Chechnya, Russian security forces and police continue to fight militants in the volatile region.
The Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to Chechnya, has spread across the North Caucasus as attacks on security forces, police and civilians are reported regularly in the nearby republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.
In the latest attempt by Moscow to stamp out the insurgency, the government has recently passed legislation that criminalizes training in terrorist camps and forces the relatives of terrorists to pay for the damages caused by their attacks.
