Police Seek Militants In Russia's Daghestan After Five Bodies Found

September 03, 2014

Security forces in Russia's North Caucasus province of Daghestan were searching for armed militants after police found the bodies of five people with gunshot wounds in a car in the capital, Makhachkala.

Police said the victims were local residents and may have been killed by militants.

They launched a "counterterrorist" operation in the city's Kirov district, where police on September 2 killed a man they later identified as a wanted militant, Rajab Mustafayev.

Islamist militants in Daghestan and other mostly Muslim provinces of the North Caucasus, including neighboring Chechnya, are waging an insurgency that stems from two post-Soviet separatist wars between Chechen rebels and government forces.

Daghestan is also plagued by violence linked to organized crime.

Based on reporting by ITAR-TASS, Interfax, and RIA Novosti