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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Gang leader eliminated, 1 officer killed in anti-terrorist op in southern Russia |
| 2018-02-17 |
| [RT] A local gang leader has been neutralized after exchanging gunfire with security forces during a counter-terrorist operation in the Republic of Dagestan ...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus republiccurrently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca... . A dramatic standoff left one special operative dead and several injured. A shootout unfolded in the North Caucasus region Thursday afternoon, when law enforcement officers cornered an armed bad boy in the "mountain-wooded area" near the village of Harachi, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee (NAK) confirmed. Although the bad boy was given a chance to lay down his arms and surrender, he began shooting at security forces squad and was bumped off. As a result, one special forces officer was killed, and several others were maimed. No civilian casualties have been reported. The officers found a grenade, a rifle and ammunition at the site. The gang leader has been wanted since 2011 in Russia. According to NAK information, the bad boy used to head the local so-called Harachinckaya gang and was a skilled demolitionist. "The neutralized [gang] leader was linked to a series of terrorist activities, including kaboom of convoy of Interior Ministry forces in December 2013," the NAK statement read. The committee, along with Dagestan’s Federal Security Service ... the successor to the KGB... (FSB), promptly declared a counter-terrorist operation in the territory at 11:50 local time after receiving information on the bad boy’s whereabouts. While the authorities have not identified the slain bad boy, Russian media reported he was a 57-year-old Kuramagomed Asadulayev, nicknamed ’Sniper’. |
| Posted by:Fred |