MAKHACHKALA, June 12 (RIA Novosti) - Two militants and a policeman were killed on Friday in an operation to detain suspects in the killing of two police officers in Russia's North Caucasus, a spokesman for Daghestan's Interior Ministry said.
The spokesman said police surrounded a car driven by militants suspected of killing two special task police officers on June 9 in Daghestan's capital of Makhachkala.
"When told to surrender the militants opened fire and the following shootout resulted in two militants being killed and one policeman fatally wounded. Two machine guns, two pistols and a package of documents were seized from the car," he added.
The shootout followed the murder on Friday morning of the police chief of Makhachkala's Sovetsky district. He was shot in the head by unknown assailants as he was going to work in Makhachkala.
Attacks on police officers have increased in recent days following the assassination of the republic's interior minister, Lt. Gen. Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, in the capital last week.
The 52-year-old, who had survived several attempts on his life during his decade in the post, was shot dead after leaving a wedding reception on June 5. The Interior Ministry's head of logistics was also killed in the attack, and several other high-ranking officials were wounded.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev convened a National Security Council meeting in the republic on Tuesday, at which he said the situation in the North Caucasus was complicated, adding that Magomedtagirov's murder represented a challenge to the state.
Since the president's visit there has been a spate of attacks on police in Daghestan, and a senior judge was murdered on Wednesday in Ingushetia, another republic bordering Chechnya.
Aza Gazgireyeva, a deputy judge on Ingushetia's Supreme Court, died of her injuries in a hospital after gunmen opened fire from automatic weapons at her official vehicle in the regional center of Nazran.
