MAKHACHKALA — At least seven militants were killed Monday in two separate operations in southern Russia, authorities said.
Dagestan Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said two suspects were cornered overnight in an apartment by a special police force in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala.
Officials say Eldos Zulfukarov, who was suspected of an assassination attempt in October on a regional prison chief, was killed in the operation along with his accomplice. Another person, apparently the female companion of one of the two men, also died in the clash, Gasanov said.
Zulfukarov has also been linked with the murder of Dagestan provincial penitentiary service deputy chief in September and a string of other attacks.
In an unrelated operation in a village in the Kabardino-Balkaria province, about 300 kilometers away, government troops on Monday killed five militants together with an accomplice, security services spokesman Nikolai Sintsov said.
(AP)
