Insurgency-Related Violence in the North Caucasus Causes Over 50 Deaths Last Month

Statistics on insurgency-related violence in the North Caucasus in February show that most of the violence was concentrated in the republics of Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria. Kavkazsky Uzel reported this week that 59 people were killed as a result of insurgency-related violence in the North Caucasus in February. According to the website, at least 66 people were injured in the violence last month. Among those killed, 32 were individuals accused by the authorities of being members of rebel groups, 15 were law enforcement personnel, 10 were civilians and two were officials. Among those injured, 56 were law enforcement personnel and 10 were civilians. It was not clear exactly how many militants, if any, were injured.

Twenty-two bombings and other terrorist acts were carried out in the North Caucasus in February, and there were at least 31 shootouts during the month. The authorities were able to avert four terrorist acts and four counter-terrorist regimes were imposed across the North Caucasus during that period.

In February alone, 15 bombings and other terrorist acts were registered in Dagestan, four in Kabardino-Balkaria, two in Chechnya and one in Ingushetia. Fifteen people died as a result of those bombings and other terrorist acts, out of whom eight were civilians, three were law enforcement personnel, three were militants and one was an official. At least 41 people – 32 law enforcement officers and nine civilians – were injured in those attacks. The biggest terrorist attacks last month were the two suicide bombings in the Dagestani village of Gubden on February 14, which killed two policemen and wounded 26, and the attack at a tourist resort near Mount Elbrus in Kabardino-Balkaria on February 18, in which three tourists from Moscow were killed and two wounded.

There were 11 shootouts in Dagestan in February, 11 in Kabardino-Balkaria, seven in Chechnya and one in Ingushetia. Forty-two people were killed in those shootouts – 29 suspected militants, 12 law enforcement personnel and one civilian – while 24 were wounded, all of them law enforcement personnel.

Of the 59 people killed in February as a result of insurgency-related violence in the North Caucasus, 22 were killed in Dagestan, 17 were killed in Kabardino-Balkaria, nine were killed in Chechnya and four were killed in Ingushetia. Six were killed on the administrative border between Stavropol Krai and Karachaevo-Cherkessia, while yet another victim of January’s suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport died in the hospital of their injuries. Forty-three people were injured in insurgency-related violence in Dagestan in February, while 13 were injured in Kabardino-Balkaria, six were injured in Chechnya and four were injured in Stavropol Krai.

There were three attacks on officials in North Caucasus in February in which two officials were killed: in Kabardino-Balkaria, the head of administration of the village of Khasanya, Ramazan Friev, was killed in Nalchik, while in Dagestan, the deputy head of the architectural department of Makhachkala’s Sovietsky district, Magomed Izudinov, died in a bomb blast.

At least 53 people were detained in February for allegedly participating in or aiding and abetting “illegal armed formations” in the North Caucasus – 22 in Chechnya, 14 in Dagestan, five in Ingushetia, five in Moscow and four in Bashkortostan. Police in the Bashkir city of Oktyabrsky detained members of a group investigators say had been operating for two years under the name of the “Oktyabrsky Jamaat Caucasus Emirate” (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, March 7).

The insurgency-related violence in the North Caucasus continued this week. A grocery store was blown up in the Dagestani city of Buinaksk yesterday (March 10). The bomb hit the store around 10:00 p.m., local time. The store was partially destroyed but no one was hurt in the explosion. A similar incident took place in Buinaksk on March 8, when an improvised explosive device (IED) stuffed with bolts and screws detonated next to the entrance of a store in the city (Interfax, www.gazeta.ru, March 10). That same day, a large IED was found in a trash can on a street in Buinaksk and defused (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, March 9).

In Kabardino-Balkaria, three alleged members of “illegal armed formations” were killed and two law enforcement personnel wounded in a shootout in the village of Shalushka in the republic’s Chegem district on March 10. The gun battle erupted when police tried to detain the three suspected insurgents, who were in a house in the village and fired on the security forces who were trying to detain them. On March 8, a man was killed in Kabardino-Balkaria’s capital Nalchik after he ran away from police who tried to stop him and a grenade he was holding detonated. Police said they found a Stechkin pistol and 20 cartridges on the body of the man, later identified as Beslan Abazov, who was on the federal wanted list for alleged terrorist activities (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, March 10).

On March 10, authorities in Chechnya declared a counter-terrorist operation regime for the Nozhai-Yurt district as large numbers of military and police personnel launched an operation to find a group of militants reportedly hiding in a wooded mountainous area of the district. The Kavkazksky Uzel website quoted a Chechen law enforcement source as saying the operation was aimed at a group of rebels hiding in the mountains of Nozhai-Yurt near the administrative border with Dagestan who were allegedly planning to carry out a series of attacks (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, March 10).