BRIEFS

–INGUSH LAW-ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL ATTACKED

Unknown gunmen men in Nazran shot up a car carrying a group of Nazran border guards on June 7, RIA-Novosti reported. A law-enforcement source told the news agency that one of the servicemen was seriously wounded. The attackers escaped in a Zhiguli automobile. On June 4, two officers of the Federal Security Service (FSB) branch in Ingushetia were killed and one was wounded when gunmen attacked their car as it was traveling along Ulitsa Mutaliev in Nazran, Kavkazky Uzel reported on June 5. During the night of June 2-3, unknown gunmen fired a grenade launcher at the home of Ingushetian Interior Ministry Beslan Khamkoev. A grenade exploded but no one was hurt in the attack, RIA-Novosti reported. On June 1, Ingushetian Health Minister Magomet Aliskhanov escaped unhurt after attackers raked his car with gunfire, the Associated Press reported. Ingushetia’s chief prosecutor blamed the attack on Chechen warlord Shamil Basaev.

–DAGESTANI POLICEMAN KILLED

A policeman and a local resident were killed in Dagestan, Itar-Tass reported on June 8. The news agency reported that a Niva jeep with the bodies of the two men was found in Khasavyurt on June 7. “The victims were gunned down,” a republican law-enforcement source told the news agency. “They were identified as a sergeant of the patrol service of the Khasavyurt city police department and a local resident.” Kommersant reported on June 6 that the robbery of an armored car which took place the previous day in Dagestan’s Untsukulsky district was carried out by Islamic militants. The thieves made off with 18 million rubles (about $69,000).

–SECURITY SITUATION WORSENS IN KABARDINO-BALKARIA

Kabardino-Balkaria’s Interior Minister, Col. Yuri Tomchak, told a meeting of republican officials that the situation in the republic required the introduction of a security alert because “there are some people in the republic who wish to stir up ethnic, religious, and other types of conflict,” the Caucasus Times website reported on June 7. “Only yesterday we carried out a large-scale operation in the Elbrus district with the involvement of subunits of Russian Interior Ministry Internal Troops, the Federal Security Service’s directorate, and the federal service directorate for the implementation of court verdicts. The situation demands high security measures.” Tomchak ordered the officials to pay serious attention to mistakes they had made in combating illegal arms, munitions and narcotics trafficking, economic crime, and religious extremism and terrorism.