A security raid in Russia’s restive province of Dagestan left three suspected militants, two police officers and a regional administrator dead Monday, officials said.
Vyacheslav Gasanov, a spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry’s branch in the region, said police surrounded a house in the village of Komsomolskoye near the border with Chechnya, where the suspected militants were holed up on Monday.
The suspects refused to surrender and shot and killed the village administrator who tried to persuade them to lay down arms, he said. All three gunmen and two policemen died in the clash.
The security raid followed Sunday’s killing of a top police official after gunmen ambushed his car in the provincial capital, Makhachkala.
Police then tracked down and killed 10 suspected militants in a shootout on the outskirts of Makhachkala, Mr. Gasanov said. Officials initially said that eight militants were killed in Sunday’s raid.
Dagestan has been plagued by attacks by Islamic militants who have spread across the region after two separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya. Official corruption, broad unemployment and heavy—handed police tactics have helped fuel violence.
