By RIA Novosti,
Makhachkala (Russia) : Four militants were killed Saturday in a counter-terrorist operation on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital of Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan, a police spokesman said.
According to the official, the militants were suspected of involvement in Friday’s murder of a deputy prosecutor in Makhachkala, as well as an attack on police in the city of Kizilyurt.
Officials identified one of the dead militants as Bagautdin Kamalutdinov, a local terrorist leader.
Meanwhile reports said that a female suicide bomber blew herself up near a school in Grosny, the capital of troubled Chechnya republic. Three policemen were also injured in the blast.
Russia’s North Caucasus republics, in particular Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia, have seen a dramatic rise in militant activity of late, with attacks on police, federal forces and officials reported almost daily.
The Kremlin officially ended its anti-terrorism operation in Chechnya in April. The republic saw two brutal separatist wars in the 1990s and early 2000s.