MOSCOW, November 27 (RIA Novosti) - A suspected militant killed in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Tuesday was identified as a local gang leader, Russia’s anti-terrorism authority said Wednesday.
Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAK) said three militants were killed in a counter-terrorism operation on the outskirts of Makhachkala, capital of the republic of Dagestan.
One of them was identified as Gasan Abatayev, leader of a local militant group. The other two were identified as active members of his gang.
The group is suspected of committing multiple crimes in the republic, including extortion, bombings and assassination attempts on law-enforcement and justice officials.
The NAK said the group is suspected of organizing the killing of senior penitentiary official Rovshan Lukmanov. His body was found with about 20 gunshot wounds at his home outside Makhachkala in mid-August.
Dagestan has in recent years been the epicenter of the Islamist insurgency in Russia’s turbulent North Caucasus, with regular armed clashes between militants and federal forces.
In a separate development, two suspected militants were killed in an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in another North Caucasus republic, Ingushetia. One law enforcement officer was injured and hospitalized.
One of the suspects killed in that operation, identified as 25-year-old Murad Pliyev, was a gang leader and an explosives specialist, the NAK said.
The NAK statement also said police seized a suicide belt, two improvised explosive devices, four assault rifles and a Kalashnikov machine gun, as well as a grenade launcher, an assortment of grenades and some 7,000 rounds of ammunition at the house where the suspected militants were killed.
Updated with details of the anti-terrorism operation in Ingushetia.
