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RUSSIA-DAGESTAN-UNREST
Gunmen kill two policemen in Russia’s troubled Dagestan
MOSCOW, July 21, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Unknown gunmen have shot dead two
policemen in Russia’s volatile Caucasus in the latest attack against local
authorities, police said on Saturday.
Assailants driving a Lada shot at a car carrying three traffic police
outside the Dagestani town of Kizilyurt late Friday and fled, a police
spokesman told AFP.
“Two people died,” he said, adding that a third policeman received no
injuries.
The spokesman said it was not immediately clear who was behind the attack,
adding an operation was under way to catch the gunmen.
Dagestan lies east of Chechnya where Russian authorities battled
separatists in two brutal wars, first in 1994-1996 and then in 1999-2000.
After the defeat of Chechen insurgents, Russian authorities have been
locked in a simmering conflict with Islamist militants from across the North
Caucasus that has killed scores of civilians and police.
Islamist militants from Dagestan are known to have travelled to join the
Islamic State group in Syria. In 2015, the group declared it had established
a “franchise” in the North Caucasus.
BSS/AFP/FI/ 1525 hrs