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Deadly violence persists in Russia's Caucasus

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-08-31 22:39

Ingushetia's President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov (C) stands with a walking stick in front of the ruins of a police station which was attacked by a suicide bomber in Nazran, southern Russia, August 22, 2009. [Agencies]

MAKHACHKALA, Russia: Police in Russia claimed Monday that security forces killed a foreign mercenary who was an emissary of al-Qaida in the Dagestan province.

The foreigner was one of two militants killed in a raid late Sunday on a home in the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt, near the border with Chechnya, provincial Interior Ministry spokesman Mark Tolchinsky said Monday.

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Police officials said he was an Arab but did not give his country of origin. News agencies RIA-Novosti and ITAR-Tass cited unidentified security officials as saying he was an Algerian citizen.

Russian authorities say a number of Arabs have fought alongside insurgents in Chechnya and neighboring provinces of the North Caucasus, in some cases leading militant groups.

Tolchinsky said the alleged mercenary represented al-Qaida, acted as a conduit for foreign financing for militants in Dagestan and helped bring fighters into Russia via neighboring Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Dagestan and other provinces in the North Caucasus are plagued by violence, and recent months have brought an upsurge in militant attacks, in many cases targeting law enforcement authorities.

An officer with an elite police unit was shot dead on the doorstep of his home in Dagestan's capital Makhachkala early Monday, Tolchinsky said. He said the attacker knocked on the door and then shot the officer several times before fleeing the scene.

In Kabardino-Balkaria, a province west of Chechnya and Dagestan, police said seven residents were detained over the weekend on suspicion of militant activity.

Government critics say harsh police methods aggravates tension and spawns more violence in the North Caucasus, a string of provinces along Russia's southern border.

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