Police and Militants Killed in Latest North Caucasus Violence

Insurgency-related violence was reported in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria this past week.
 
An explosion in the center of Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala early today (September 9) injured four policemen. The blast took place shortly after midnight, when an apparent improvised explosive device that had been hidden in bushes detonated as traffic police were stopping a car for an inspection (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 9).
 
A group of militants attacked a Federal Security Service (FSB) border guard post in Dagestan’s Tsuntinksy district yesterday (September 8). According to a local police source, the rebels opened fire on the post near the village of Khupri from several directions simultaneously, sparking a ten-minute shootout during which two servicemen were wounded and a fire broke out in the post (www.newsru.com, September 8).
 
Gadzhibutta Alunkachaev, the former deputy head of the Dagestan’s Novolaksky district, died yesterday (September 8) of wounds he sustained in an attack the previous day. An unidentified gunman shot and severely wounded Alunkachaev in Makhachkala on September 7. The gunman also shot Rasul Akhmedov, Alunkachaev’s relative who was working as his driver, who died on the spot. Alunkachaev was removed as deputy head of the Novolaksky district, a post he had held since January 2010, at the start of September after Dagestani prosecutors ruled he had illegally been serving simultaneously as a deputy in the Novolaksky district assembly, to which he was elected in October 2010. It was not clear if the shooting was insurgency related or simply criminal violence (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 8).
 
On September 4, several police cars in the city of Khasavyurt were damaged by a grenade explosion that took place during a special operation. A Dagestani rebel leader, Ibragim Mukhuchev (aka Abu Umar) was killed in the operation along with his common-law wife. The National Counter-Terrorism Committee (NAK) reported the couple had been blockaded in a private home in the city and opened fire on security forces when they were ordered to surrender. An NAK spokesman said Mukhuchev’s common-law wife was armed with a hand grenade. According to the NAK, Mukhuchev had been involved in attacks on law-enforcement personnel, civilians and officials and also had “extorted from businessmen large sums of money putatively for the needs of the ‘jihad’” (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 4-5).
 
On September 1, an explosion in Khasavyurt killed the deputy head of the city’s branch of the FSB, Lt.-Col. Ibragim Dzhabrailov, and wounded four of his relatives. An IED detonated underneath the Toyota Prada in which they were driving on Makhachkalinsky Shosse. Dzhabrailov died at the scene of the blast, and his mother, sister and a young niece were reportedly among those injured. According to one report, the three relatives were hospitalized but not seriously hurt. However, according to another report, Dzhabrailov’s mother and niece were seriously injured in the blast (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 1-2).
 
Also on September 1, an unidentified attacker fired a grenade launcher at a grocery store in the city of Buinaksk. No one was hurt in the attack, but the building was seriously damaged. As the Kavkazsky Uzel website noted, Dagestani militants frequently carry out attacks on shops and cafes that sell alcoholic beverages (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 1).
 
In Ingushetia, at least five alleged militants were killed and two captured during special operations yesterday (September 8). Two were killed and one wounded in an operation in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya, while one was killed and another captured in an operation in the village of Ekazhevo. Earlier in the day, two suspected militants were killed in a shootout with security forces in the village of Nesterovskaya in Inugshetia’s Sunzha district. One was reportedly killed in the exchange of fire, while the other reportedly blew himself up before he could be captured (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 8).
 
A source in Ingushetia’s Interior Ministry claimed today (September 9) identified the three militants killed yesterday in Ordzhonikidzevskaya and Ekazhevo as Amir Toldiev, Imran Albogachiev and Magomed Bulguche and said they were the “last followers” of Said Buryatskay, the insurgent ideologist and Muslim convert killed in Ingushetia in March 2010 (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 9). Ingushetia’s president, Yunus-Bak Yevkurov said yesterday that the whereabouts of the rebels killed and captured in Ordzhonikidzevskaya and Ekazhevo had been revealed by other militants who were captured several days earlier (RIA Novosti, September 8).
 
In Kabardino-Balkaria, a civilian was killed and two policemen wounded in two rebel attacks in the republic’s Baksan district on September 7. One of the policemen and a civilian were wounded when a police road patrol car came under fire in the city of Bakasan. The civilian later died of his wounds in the hospital. The second policeman was shot and wounded in the village of Islamey (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 8). On September 7, a suspected militant died in a shootout with police who stopped his car on a highway in Kabardino-Balkaria’s Prokhladnensky district (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 7). On September 3, four alleged militants were killed during a special operation in the city of Baksan. Two republican Interior Ministry personnel – an Interior Ministry Internal Troops serviceman and a member of the SOBR (Special Rapid Response) unit – were wounded in that shootout (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, September 3).