4 Militants, Politician Killed in North Caucasus

Feb. 13, 2011

MAKHACHKALA — Four Islamist militants and a local politician have been killed in drive-by shootings, shootouts with police and accidental bombings in the volatile North Caucasus region, officials said Saturday.

Two suspected Islamist militants were gunned down Saturday in Nazran, the largest city in the republic of Ingushetia, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

Also Saturday, a regional leader of the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party was gunned down in the republic of

Adygeya, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

It said Alexander Loboda was sprayed with bullets from a passing car in the town of Maikop.

Magomed Deniyev, a spokesman for Chechnya’s police, said a young Chechen man was killed late Friday in the republic’s southern Shatoi district after a shootout with police.

And in neighboring Dagestan, police found the body of a man apparently killed on Friday by an improvised explosive device.

Police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said the man was an Islamist militant who triggered the device by mistake in the Kyzyl-Yurt district.

Last month near Moscow, a suicide bomber blew himself up at Domodedovo Airport, killing 36.

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