Dagestan conducts special operation to detain militants

Law-enforcement agencies are searching for a group of militants in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan (a North Caucasian republic). They killed three policemen and wounded four when the latter tried to detain the bandits.

The source in the Dagestani interior ministry reported on Friday that "the law-enforcement agencies possess information that the three criminals are active members of illegal armed formations and have been involved in a number of grave crimes." At the present time, the Dagestani policemen are blocking the district where the bandits can hide," the source added.

The unit on duty of the Kasavyurt interior department reported that in the course of the operation to detain an armed criminal, suspected of committing a murder, in the village of Bammatbekyurt he offered resistance. Two policemen were killed on the spot and the third one died of wounds. Still another three policemen have been hospitalized with wounds of various degree of gravity. The criminal managed to disappear.

The operative-search measures are being taken now in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan and on the administrative border with Chechnya.

The top officials of the Dagestani interior ministry went to the place of the incident.