(AP) – Six people suspected of being members of the Islamic State group have been killed in a gunfight in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region. The country’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) on Sunday described the shootout as a “counter-terrorism operation.”
Late Saturday, the six men barricaded themselves on the third floor of an apartment building in Karabulak, a town of about 30,000 people in Russia’s semi-autonomous Republic of Ingushetia, the NAC said in a statement. According to Russia’s Interfax news agency, surrounding streets were blocked and residents of the apartment complex evacuated to a nearby school as gunfire erupted with security forces.
In videos posted on social media by Karabrak residents, heavy gunshots and explosions can be heard appearing to come from inside the apartment complex.
The NAC did not immediately reveal the names of the suspected militants, but three of them are on Russia’s most wanted list, and all six were police officers for attacking a traffic police unit in March last year. He said he was involved in violent acts, including killing three people.
The local branch of Russia’s main security agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB), announced at 7:30pm local time on Saturday that emergency measures were in place near the building due to an ongoing “counter-terrorism” operation. The restrictions were lifted just after noon Sunday.
Attention: Muslim mob attacks Russia’s Dagestan airport in search of ‘Jewish refugees’https://t.co/eMviRGwulB
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NAC claimed that security agents found automatic weapons, ammunition, grenades and homemade explosives inside the apartment where the men were hiding.
The agency said no local residents were injured, but Baza, a Russian telegram channel set up by journalists critical of the Kremlin, reported that a man passing by was killed in the gunfight. Reconciling the conflicting accounts was not immediately possible.
Islamic rebels have fought two full-scale wars with Russian forces in the Chechen region adjacent to Ingushetia over the past two decades. Although the rebellion has been largely suppressed, sporadic attacks continue.
Violence blamed on rebel groups has also been frequent in Ingushetia, with both regions experiencing unrest in response to Russia’s military actions in Ukraine and the highly unpopular September 2022 mobilization order.
