Dagestan shootout leaves militant killed, policeman injured

PanARMENIAN.Net - A suspected militant was killed and a policeman wounded in a shootout in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Sunday, August 1 the National Anti-Terrorism Committee reported in a statement, according to RIA Novosti.

According to the statement, policemen stopped two people late on Sunday night outside the city of Buinaksk to inspect their identification documents, but they opened gunfire on law enforcers.

Policemen opened fire in return killing one of the suspects, while the other one managed to escape, the statement said, adding that one of the policemen was wounded in the shootout.

The statement also said that the killed suspect was later identified as Zaur Umarov, who was on a federal wanted list and known as a bomb expert allegedly behind a number of terrorist attacks in Russia.

Attacks on security forces, police and civilians occur regularly in the North Caucasus, generated by ethnic, religious and political rivalries, as well as poverty and corruption. The violence is also fed by an Islamist insurgency, which has been especially resilient in Dagestan and fueled a series of bloody post-Soviet separatist wars in the neighboring republic of Chechnya.