Militants Killed in Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria

Itar-Tass on May 14 quoted sources in the Dagestani branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying that a special operation aimed at “neutralizing the so-called Khasavyurt subversive/terrorist grouping” had ended in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district. The sources said four militants had been killed during the two-day operation, including the group’s emir, Arsen Asulbegov.

The operation followed an incident on May 8, when a bomb blast in the suburbs of Khasavyurt wounded two OMON special-purpose police officers. Interfax reported that the bombing took place at the intersection of the Makhachkala-Khasavyurt-Novolaki highways and that the two wounded OMON officers were on guard at the intersection when the blast occurred.

Agence France-Presse reported on May 11 that three rebel fighters were killed in a shootout with security forces in Kabardino-Balkaria on May 10. Citing Interfax, AFP reported that the three were intercepted as they were traveling by jeep in the Baksan district northwest of Kabardino-Balkaria’s capital Nalchik and that they died in the ensuing shootout as a result of a bomb in their vehicle detonating. Kabardino-Balkaria’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that two of those killed, named Guliev and Mukozhev, had been sought on suspicion of killing three senior police officers for organizing the October 2005 insurgent attack in Nalchik in which about 130 people were killed as well as of other crimes.