Violence in three separate provinces of Russia’s restive North Caucasus left three people dead, law enforcement authorities said one senior police officer, one suspected militant and one bystander.
The chief of a riot police unit in Dagestan, on the Caspian Sea east of war-scarred Chechnya, was shot by two gunmen as he headed to work in the provincial capital Makhachkala, provincial Interior Ministry spokesman Mark Tolchinsky said.
In Ingushetia, west of Chechnya, security forces killed a suspected militant in a gunbattle in a wooded area, said Ilyas Dugov, spokesman for the regional branch of the Federal Security Service. He said another gunman was wounded but avoided capture.
A police officer and two bystanders were injured in an exchange of gunfire that ensued when police stopped two suspicious-looking men in the street in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, provincial Interior Ministry spokeswoman Marina Kyasova said. One of the bystanders died in the hospital, she said.
Chechnya and neighbouring North Caucasus provinces have remained mired in violence stemming from wars between separatist Chechen rebels and the Russian government. More than 50 police officers have been gunned down by Islamic militants in Dagestan alone so far this year.
