Police uncovered a cache with an improvised bomb and two machine guns in the republic of Kabardino-Balkaria in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, the republic's Interior Ministry reported on Sunday.
During a fight with militants Saturday in the Urvansky district in eastern Kabardino-Balkaria, security forces killed one militant and detained another, the Anti-Terrorist Committee earlier reported. The security forces also found a dugout equipped for long-term accommodation of more than five people.
"At the scene of the combat engagement, the police seized an improvised explosive device, two Kalashnikov light machine guns, nine F-1 and RGD-5 grenades, three Motorola radios, over 180 cartridges and components for the improvised bomb," the republic's Interior Ministry reported.
The militant killed by Russia's security forces was on the federal wanted list, the ministry said.
"The members of this armed gang are complicit in a number of murders and attempts on the life of law-enforcement personnel. The gunmen were preparing a series of terrorist attacks against security forces and local authorities in the republic's capital and in the Urvansky district," the ministry said.
The Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to the republic of Chechnya, has spread across the North Caucasus in recent years. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are reported regularly in the neighboring republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.
Over a decade after the war against Islamist separatists in Chechnya ended, Russian security forces and police continue to fight militants in the volatile region.