Russian forces on Thursday killed three militants near a ski resort in the southern Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, where three people were killed in a terrorist attack in February.
Two Russian special forces officers were injured in a shootout with the militants in the village of Shalushka, officials said.
Security has been stepped up in the area after armed men attacked a vehicle carrying five people, including a government official and three tourists, to the Mount Elbrus ski resort on February 18.
The day after the attack, a bomb was detonated in the resort itself, causing 40 cable cars to crash to the ground. No one was injured in the attack.
Until recently Kabardino-Balkaria was considered one of the calmer republics of the mainly Muslim North Caucasus, where terrorist attacks and shootouts with police are common.
Russian federal troops fought two brutal wars against Islamist separatists in neighboring Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s.
MOSCOW, March 10 (RIA Novosti)
