Nine persons lost within a week in armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

During the week from February 28 to March 6, the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus took away at least nine lives; at least four persons were injured during this period. These are the count results of the "Caucasian Knot", based on its materials and information from other open sources.

The casualties include seven suspects of involvement in the armed underground, one power officer and one state official. At least three power agents and one suspected militant were wounded.

These seven days saw two explosions, seven armed clashes and one attempt on a state official. The counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was announced for 18 hours in the Ingush city of Karabulak. On the contrary, in the Kizlyar and Tarumov Districts in Dagestan on March 1 the CTO regime, introduced there on February 16, was stopped.

Last week one explosion happened in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) and one in Ingushetia. Thus, in the Chegem District of the KBR, according to the police, at an attempt to neutralize a self-made explosive device found during a search of the house of earlier liquidated militant, the bomb spontaneously blew up; and the house collapsed. In Nazran, a house was also blown up. It was inhabited by relatives of Ali Taziev, also known as "Magas", one of the leaders of the underground, now under arrest in Moscow. Law enforcers said that they had detected and neutralized a powerful explosive device in the house. However, Taziev's relatives assert that the bomb was brought by power agents themselves.

In the last week's armed clashes, at least eight persons were killed and three more wounded. Among the casualties there are seven suspected militants and one law enforcer. Two power agents and a militant were wounded. Five armed incidents occurred in Kabardino-Balkaria, one in Ingushetia and one in Chechnya.

All the clashes burst out, when law enforcers tried, according to their versions, to detain suspects of involvement in crimes or check their documents. In each of five such cases in Kabardino-Balkaria - on February 28 in Chegem, on March 1 in Baksan and near Chegem, on March 2 in Nalchik and on March 5 in the Maiskiy District - a suspected member of illegal armed formations (IAFs) was killed, while there were no other casualties or victims. More serious fights were fixed with participation, as inspectors report, of high-ranking Ingush militants in Nazran and Grozny. In them, apart from two suspects, one policeman was killed and two more were wounded. It was also reported that in a clash in Nazran one militant was wounded, which happens very rarely.

Also, in the highland village of Zandak, Nozhai-Yurt District of Chechnya, an unidentified assailant knifed a patrol-and-post service inspector in his stomach and disappeared. The inspector was hospitalized in grave condition.

Attacks on state officials also continue. This time, unidentified persons in Makhachkala shelled the car of Zalkipri Sheikhov, an assistant of the director of the Federal Tax Service for Dagestan and a former FSB officer, who later died.

Within the week, at least 11 persons were detained on suspicion of involvement in IAFs or as helpers: seven in Chechnya, two in Ingushetia, one in Dagestan and one in Moscow.

Thus, on March 1, in broad daylight, in the capital of Dagestan, Magomed Gaziev, 18, a resident of the village of Shamkhal, was kidnapped. Later it became known that Gaziev was put into the IVS (temporary detention facility); and his relatives assert that he was tortured. His sister also reported to the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" that on March 1 power agents took away to some unknown place six other villagers of Shamkhal; however, so far, their names and whereabouts remain unknown.

In Chechnya - in Grozny and in the Grozny and Urus-Martan Districts - three persons were detained, who had earlier, in past years, according to law enforcers, been members of IAFs, one of them 12 years ago. In Moscow a man, in the Vedeno District of Chechnya a woman, and in the Achkhoy-Martan District three young men were detained for supplying militants with food and money. In Ingushetia, Ekazhev brothers were detained. Their mother says that the advocate is not admitted to the detainees.