Police in Russia's south killed two suspected militants Jan. 7 in a "counter-terrorism operation" launched in response to a checkpoint suicide attack that took the lives of six officers. The area on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan [2], has been under curfew since the attack. Dagestan, Ingushetia [3] and Chechnya [4], all predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus, saw a sharp rise in violence last year, with near-daily attacks mostly targeting police and other officials. The violence sweeping the impoverished southern region is increasingly described as a civil war between Kremlin-supported administrations and Islamic militants. (AP [5], Jan. 7) A Dec. 18 suicide car attack on a group of police and soldiers in Nazran, Ingushetia, wounded at least 23 people, including civilians. (AP [6], Dec. 18)
See our last posts on Russia [7] and the Caucasus [8].
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