Russia announced that its air and ground forces had killed 17 rebels in a highly unusual precision strike on a Caucasus base used by Islamists.
The National Antiterror Committee said the special operation was planned by Russia’s Interior and Defense ministries as part of a broader investigation into the deadly suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport in January.
The use of an air strike in the Northern Caucasus is a highly unusual tactic by the Russian security forces.
The committee also said that “two participants in the act of terror at Domodedovo have been detained.”
Ingush Governor Yunus-Bek Yevkurov said the rebels had entered the republic only recently “with the aim of conducting subversive and terrorist activities against both the law enforcement authorities and the local population.”
The January 24 suicide blast killed 37 people at Russia’s busiest airport in an attack claimed by Chechen Islamist Doku Umarov.
compiled from agency reports