On January 9-15, 58 persons fell victim to the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

During the last week of January 9-15, at least 22 persons were killed and other 36 were wounded in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. These are the results of calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The number of casualties includes six law enforcers: four in Chechnya and two in Dagestan. 33 persons were wounded, 16 of them in Chechnya, eight in Kabardino-Balkaria, five in Dagestan, two in Ingushetia and two in North Ossetia.

The number of casualties includes 13 persons, suspected by power agents of involvement in illegal armed formations (IAFs): five of them in Chechnya, five in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR), two in Dagestan, and one in North Ossetia.

During the week, three civilians were killed and other two were wounded. One of them was killed in Dagestan, two in the KBR. The number of wounded persons includes one in Chechnya and one in Dagestan.

One should understand that the above statistics cannot reflect with absolute accuracy the number of victims in each of the identified categories in the survey. Not all the data gets into news reports. It is not always possible to verify the reliability of statements made by law enforcement bodies.

Attacks on law enforcers

In the Grozny District of Chechnya, a car Niva, driven by the deputy head of the 1st Division of the Investigatory Department of the Republic's Investigatory Committee, was shelled. A passenger, a resident of the Georgievskaya District of the Stavropol Territory, was wounded.

According to power agencies, in the Baksan District in Kabardino-Balkaria, an armed militant was killed. Trying to escape the pursuit by a car VAZ-21099, a man opened fire at police officers and was killed by return fire. No civilians or law enforcers suffered. According to the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the man was Z. Khashpagov, the active accomplice of the IAF, born in 1974, suspected of attempts on law enforcers in the territory of the Baksan District, including involvement in the murder of Police Lieutenant Colonel Murat Shkhagumov, committed on December 31.

At the car of the killed man, police officers found a Makarov pistol, an improvised explosive device (IED) with striking elements in the form of screws, dowels, nails, containing 200-gram TNT block with plant-manufactured electric detonator, a broadcast set, a fuse from a grenade, six shells from a Makarov pistol, topographical maps of the cities of Baksan and Chegem, and lists of names and addresses of police officers from the Kabardino-Balkarian MIA.

On January 9, in the Urvan District, law enforcers of Kabardino-Balkaria killed a man, who furnished armed resistance. At about 01:10 p.m. Moscow time, in Pochtovaya Street in the village of Stary Cherek, policemen attempted to stop a car VAZ-2108; however, a driver opened fire at them and he was killed by return fire. None of power agents suffered. A killed man was a 25-year-old resident of the village of Urvan of the KBR.

In the town of Prokhladny in Kabardino-Balkaria, a policeman shot dead a local resident. According to the MIA, the incident took place, when a man tried to acquire weapon of the policeman. The 39-year-old resident of the Urvan District of the republic, earlier convicted for the creation of illegal armed grouping, died in the resuscitation ward of a hospital, where he was brought by policemen.

At night on January 9, a stationary post of the road-and-patrol service was shelled by unidentified persons at the 756th km of the highway "Caucasus" in the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan. At that time, six police inspectors were at the post; they opened return fire during shelling, no one of them was wounded. The shelling damaged two police cars and the building of the road-and-patrol service.

On January 9, in the area of a railway crossing near the village of Novonikolaevka, unidentified persons shelled road policemen at the railway crossing in the Tarumovka District of Dagestan. None of the police officers, who carried out the task to protect the site of railway track, was wounded. A car got several holes.

On January 10, a soldier of the internal troops of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) was wounded in the armed clash with militants in the Kizlyar District of Dagestan. The armed clash occurred near the village of Bolshaya Areshevka. In the same special operation, a suspected militant was killed. Aircrafts were engaged in the special operation. The killed militant was Saipudin Aliev, the 27-year-old resident of the village of Shaumyan of the Kizlyar District, who was wanted by power agents under Article 105 (murder) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

On January 11, in the Tarumovka District of Dagestan unidentified persons opened fire at a police officer and his family members, as a result, the police officer himself and his daughter were delivered to a hospital with wounds. The incident occurred in the village of Novogeorgievka. Unidentified persons set a car Priora, belonging to the police officer, on fire, and when he and his family members rushed to extinguish the fire, they were shelled. As a result of shelling, Police Senior Lieutenant, the acting head of the District GIBDD (road police) and his daughter were delivered to the hospital. The wounded girl is 15 years old.

At night on January 13, in the city of Izberbash, unidentified persons opened fire at policemen of the Dagestani MIA from automatic weapons of unidentified type, when the policemen stopped their car and approached them to check documents. One law enforcement officer was wounded.

On January 14, in the Magaramkent District of Dagestan, an armed attack on a police patrol was committed, two persons, suspected of the attack, were detained after a skirmish. According to the MIA, the police patrol tried to check the documents of two suspicious men, one of whom opened fire. The policemen opened return fire and forced two attackers lay down arms and surrender. No policemen were wounded.

On January 14, in the city of Buinaksk, a building of bailiffs' service was shelled. According to preliminary information, the shooting was carried out with grenade launchers and submachine guns. No one was wounded in the attack.

On the same day, in Makhachkala, a Warrant Officer of the FSB Republic's Department was killed. The attack occurred at about 10:00 p.m. Moscow time. Allegedly, the criminal has made several shots at the member of the FSB Department from a pistol. The Warrant Officer died from the wounds.

Khamkhoev, the police officer from the Department for Combating Economic Crimes of the Republic's MIA, was hospitalized with a gunshot wound after an armed attack, committed on January 12 at the federal highway "Caucasus" near the village of Barsuki of the Nazran District of Ingushetia. He succeeded to drive his car to the nearest stationary police post, from where he was taken to the hospital. Khamkhoev was brought to the resuscitation ward, and at present he is in serious condition.

At night on January 13, in the village of Surkhakhi of the Nazran District of Ingushetia, an attempt on Ilez Nalgiev, ex-Chief of the criminal police of the city of Karabulak, was committed. An explosive device exploded at the moment, when he approached the gates of the house, in which he lived. As a result of the explosion, Ilez Nalgiev was severely wounded. He was delivered to the resuscitation ward of the Republic's Hospital. The attempt on his life was committed on the eve of the court session on the loud case of torture against Nalgiev.

Two police men were wounded as a result of shelling in the Elkhot District of North Ossetia. Police Lieutenant Igor Dzutsev from the MIA Department for the Kirov District, and Tamerlan Dzebosiv, the trainee student of the Rostov Institute of Law of the Russian MIA, who was in training at the District Police Division, were delivered to the District Hospital with gunshot wounds. Arthur Gurtsiev, a local resident, suspected of that crime, had been earlier convicted for violence against a power representative.

Casualties among civilians

On January 9, in the Lenin District of Makhachkala, a pensioner, born in 1937, was shot dead. Two unidentified persons opened fire at the man from unidentified type of weapon. The pensioner died in hospital from gunshot wounds to his neck. Investigators consider the pensioner's occupation with traditional healing as one of the versions of the reasons for his murder.

On January 10, during an attack on a farm in the Elbrus District of Kabardino-Balkaria, unidentified persons shot dead a stableman and a farmer. The incident occurred at about 06:00 a.m. in Tyrnyauz in the area near a mudflow dam. The stableman discovered a theft at one of the horse farms in Tyrnyauz. He rode for the farmer and the policeman. When the three of them went back along the bridge across the river, they were shelled by unidentified persons. The policeman was not wounded.

Detection and explosions of IEDs

On January 11, as a result of a failed bomb disposal in the Kizilyurt District of Dagestan, a law enforcer perished, and eight others were injured and hospitalized. Six IEDs (improvised explosive devices), buried in the ground in the forms of plastic containers with volume of 65 l, located at 10-15 m from each other and connected by wires, were found on the roadside of the federal highway "Caucasus" at the 761st km, in the vicinity of the village of Komsomolskoe of the Kizilyurt District.

On the same day, in the Sergokala District of Dagestan, a resident of the village of Sergokala, while grazing cattle, stepped on an IED of "trap mine" type; however, he was not wounded. Only a detonator came into action. The mine itself consisted of a two-litre can of paint, buried in the ground and filled with a mixture of ammonium nitrate and aluminium powder.

Special operations

On January 8, in the high mountainous Vedeno District of the republic, power agents conducted a major operation against members of the armed underground. In the armed clashes, which took place in the vicinity of the villages of Tevzen Kala, Dyshni-Vedeno, and Djani-Vedeno, four power agents were killed three soldiers from internal troops and one police officer of the Chechen MIA and other 16 participants of the special operation were wounded.

According to power agents, the total number of members of armed underground, killed in shoot-outs with power agents, reached five persons. Three of them Ali Aidamirov, Khalid Dushaev, and Israil Adizov were kidnapped last summer by power agents, and, since that time, they were considered missing. This was reported yesterday, on January 17, by the Human Rights Centre "Memorial". Relatives believe that their sons were not militants and they were not killed in battle. Official representatives of Chechnya have not commented on the statement.

On January 14, in the forest area near the village of Bolshaya Areshevka of the Kizlyar District of Dagestan, an armed clashed between power agents and a group of militants occurred; a law enforcer was wounded. A killed man was identified by law enforcement agencies as Ruslan Sagidkhadjiev, the active member of the Kizlyar raiding and terror grouping, its major demolitionist. Mukhtar Sagidkhadjiev, his brother, who tried to bring his brother out of the blockade, was detained.

On January 9-11, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime remained in force in the village of Gimry of the Untsukul District of Dagestan. On January 10, the message about blockade of the village came to the SMS-service of the "Caucasian Knot". According to local residents, the village was cordoned off by law enforcers and soldiers, and heavy military equipment was brought to the village. On January 11, entry and exit from the village of Gimry were open; however, power agents remained in the village. On January 13, the residents of the village reported on mass searches and cases of beatings of the villagers. Then, the press service of the Dagestani MIA stated that they had no information on the events in the village.

On January 14, the residents of the village of Gimry held a rally demanding to cancel the CTO regime in the village. About 1,000 persons attended the rally. In the evening of January 14, the CTO commanders met the residents of the village. Representatives of power agencies have promised people to respond to every message of violation of the law during the CTO regime; however, they refused to mention the end time of the operation. Only on January 17, Aliaskhab Magomedov, the head of the village announced cancellation of the CTO regime. Till present, representatives of Dagestani law enforcement agencies have not confirmed the information about cancellation of the CTO regime.

On January 11, in special operation in the village of Chermen of North Ossetia, Ruslan Kodzoev, who was in the wanted list since May 2011, was killed. According to law enforcers, he was listed as the active member of illegal armed formations, and he was hiding in the mountainous and forest area on the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia. In the Prigorodny District, on the western outskirts of the village of Chermen, the CTO regime was introduced in accordance with the federal law on combating terrorism. Later, the operational headquarters for North Ossetia reported that Ruslan Kodzoev was involved in the terror act, committed on September 9, 2010 at the Central market in the city of Vladikavkaz.

On January 11, the CTO regime was also introduced in the village of Kremenchug-Konstantinovskoe of the Baksan District of Kabardino-Balkaria. This was preceded by armed clash between law enforcers and militants. As a result, two suspected militants were killed, one was wounded and detained. No law enforcers suffered. On January 12, the CTO regime was cancelled.

Detentions

At night on January 9, in Nazran, policemen, while on patrol in the city, detained a local resident, who had a Makarov pistol with him. He presented a document on an expensive car, which he drove. The document appeared to be forged. The pistol was found in the course of his searching. The detainee was brought to a temporary detention facility.

On January 10, policemen found two grenades and 100 shells of Kalashnikov machine gun at two residents of Dagestan. In the village of Komsomolskoe, near which at that time one policeman perished and other eight policemen were wounded in bomb disposal, in the course of personal searching of a 23-year-old local resident, policemen found at a belt under his jacket and seized two hand grenades F-1 (hand antipersonnel defensive grenade) with fuses. From a resident of the village of Temirgoe, policemen seized 100 shells of 7.62 mm calibre.

The "Caucasian Knot" emphasizes that the statistics on members of the armed underground deals with those, who were declared as such by law enforcement bodies.

In 2011, no less than 1378 persons fell victim to the ongoing armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. The above number includes 750 persons, who were killed, and at least 628 persons, who were wounded. The number of 750 casualties includes 335 persons declared as members of the armed underground, 239 law enforcers, and 176 civilians. These are the results of calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from open sources.