More Violence in Dagestan

A bomb blast in Makhachkala on May 14 seriously wounded Dagestani railway official Omari Alilov and a police officer who was passing by, the Associated Press reported. The news agency quoted Makhachkala transport police chief Akhmed Magomaev as saying that the blast occurred while Alilov was traveling in his car in the Dagestani capital. The Regnum news agency reported on May 14 that Omar Alilov had earlier been accused of being responsible for two attacks on the head of the Dagestan branch of the Federal Pension Fund, Amuchi Amutinov, but had twice been acquitted. Amutinov survived both attacks, one of which killed a driver and two passersby (Chechnya Weekly, February 23, 2005).

Also on May 14, Dagestani authorities said police detained a man from Tajikistan suspected of fighting alongside rebels in Chechnya and taking part in a 2004 clash in Dagestan that left three police officers dead. The Associated Press quoted Interior Ministry spokeswoman Angela Martirosova as saying that Radzhab Perov, detained in a police operation, had been planning to leave for Azerbaijan.

At least three militants were killed and two police officers wounded in a battle in Khasavyurt that took place over May 12-13. Dagestani Interior Ministry spokeswoman Angela Martirosova told the AP that the fighting erupted on May 12 soon after police surrounded a building in Khasavyurt where militants were holed up. Fighting stopped overnight, but new gunfire broke out from a neighboring building on the morning of May 13 as police tried to storm the first building. According to the AP, Russian television showed heavily armed police firing through trees on a burning house and running through Khasavyurt’s streets.