Makhachkaka: Several attacks
in Russia`s volatile North Caucasus region have left two
police officers dead and another five wounded, officials said
on Saturday.
The ministry`s branch in the Caspian Sea province
of Dagestan says one officer was gunned down late Friday on
the outskirts of the regional capital, Makhachkala.
Another policeman was killed yesterday in the
province of Ingushetia west of Chechnya. The gunmen shot and
killed him outside an auto repair shop in the region`s main
city of Nazran.
In another attack today in the province of
Kabardino-Balkariya, a truck carrying police hit a
radio-controlled land mine, leaving five policemen wounded.
The attacks follow Thursday`s suicide bombing near
the central market of Vladikavkaz, the regional capital of the
republic of North Ossetia, that killed 17 people and wounded
more than 140. It was the most serious attack in Russia since
the March subway bombings in Moscow that killed 40 people.
Funerals were held in Vladikavkaz today for some of
the victims. About 200 people also rallied in front of the
regional government`s headquarters, demanding that authorities
offer a better protection for the population.
A car exploded in a courtyard of an apartment
building in Vladikavkaz today, hurting no one but raising
fears of a new terror attack. Authorities said the blast
wasn`t a terror attack, and apparently was linked to criminal
disputes.
Russia`s ethnically diverse North Caucasus region
has been plagued by violence stemming from two separatist wars
in Chechnya and fueled by poverty, official corruption and
police abuses.
PTI
