MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti) – Three suspected rebels were killed in a shootout in the turbulent North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, officials said on Thursday.
Two of the killed were identified by the state officials as the leaders of separate influential criminal gangs: Ayub Khaladov and Movsar Katsiyev. The third one was Katsiyev’s subordinate, Khamzat Pugoyev, who was involved into attacks on law enforcement officials in Ingushetia and North Ossetia, Russia’s National Antiterrorism Committee said in a statement.
One officer of the local Federal Security Service (FSB) branch was injured in the shootout.
Khaladov was one of the organizers of the 2010 major attack on native village of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov. He was involved into plotting of suicide bombings, including one at the border of Ingushetia and North Ossetia in October, according to the statement said.
Russia has been fighting terrorists in its volatile southern republics for over a decade, but terrorist attacks are still frequent in the North Caucasus.