Twelve persons lost their lives within a week in armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

During the week on March 14-20, the low intensity armed conflict in Northern Caucasus took away at least 12 lives and injured at least 10 persons. These are the calculations of the "Caucasian Knot" made on the basis of its own sources and other open data outlets.

The death roll includes ten suspected of involvement in the armed underground and two law enforcers. At least eight power agents, one suspected militant and one civilian were wounded.

The above seven days saw three explosions, seven armed clashes and three attempts on law enforcers. In the city of Kizilyurt, Dagestan, an explosive device was detected and neutralized near the house of a policeman. In one of the streets of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime was introduced.

Two explosions occurred last week in Kabardino-Balkaria, and one in Dagestan. As a result, two persons were wounded: one civilian and one supposed militant. Thus, on March 20, when garbage was taken away from the territory of the marketplace, located in Prokhladny, Kabardino-Balkaria, a bomb went off. The cleaner received fragmental wounds of his legs. Another explosion occurred in this republic in an apartment in Nalchik, the owner of which, according to power agents, was making a self-made explosive device. The man lost his foot. According to one version, the bomb was intended for illegal fishing. In Buinaksk, Dagestan, a bomb exploded outside a shop. This time it was a shop selling women's clothes; no one was hurt.

In armed clashes last week in the region at least ten persons were killed and eight more wounded. All the casualties are suspected militants, while all the wounded persons are power agents. Five armed incidents took place in Dagestan, and two - in Kabardino-Balkaria.

The major battle took place on March 14 near midnight in Dagestan, where the Kizilyurt ROVD (District Interior Division) was attacked. After shelling the ROVD building, the attackers fled, having blown up one of their cars and planting a mine near the house of a policeman. Seven policemen were injured. A few hours later, in a suburb of Makhachkala, policemen tried to stop for a check a car without license number plates. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), fire was opened on policemen from inside the car; the three persons who were inside the car were killed by response fire. The MIA of Dagestan believes that these three criminals had earlier attacked the Kizilyurt ROVD.

Another attempt of the police to check a car in the Khasavyurt District of Dagestan ended, according to law enforcers, in the same manner - fire was opened from inside the car; three young men were killed by response fire. On March 19, in Repin Street of Makhachkala, the CTO regime was introduced, and two suspected militants were blocked and killed in the skirmish. On March 20, unidentified persons shelled the police check post in the village of Chernyaevka, Kizlyar District, and wounded a soldier-contractor of the Interior Troops of the Russian MIA. In Nalchik and the Cherek District of Kabardino-Balkaria, two suspects of involvement in the armed underground were killed; under the official version, they rendered armed resistance to power agents.

Also last week three attacks were made on police officers. In the capital of Dagestan a policeman and an officer from the local department for Dagestan of the Federal Penitentiary Service (known as "UFSIN") were shot dead. In the capital of Ingushetia, the house of the SIZO (pre-trial prison) head was shelled from a grenade launcher; nobody was hurt.

During the week more than 100 persons were detained during the week on suspicion of involvement in illegal armed formations (IAFs), militants' helpers and searched suspects. Almost all of them were detained in Dagestan, two men in Chechnya, one in Kabardino-Balkaria and one in the Krasnodar Territory.

Mass detentions of parishioners were conducted at the exit of the mosque in the village of Shamkhal-Station in Makhachkala. The whole village was blocked by power agents. They checked the village yard-by-yard and detained young men according to some list they had. According to locals, about 100 persons were detained. They were fingerprinted, photographed and released. Also in Dagestan on March 16, a suspected member of the Kizlyar militant grouping was detained.

In the city of Chegem, Kabardino-Balkaria, a suspected militants' helper was detained; an ammunition depot was found in his house. In Chechnya, a man was detained and accused that last August he supplied foodstuffs to a militant. Another person detained in Chechnya is suspected of being a member - in the period from October to November 1999 - of one of the military units of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. In the Krasnodar Territory, a resident of the Dinskaya District was detained on suspicion of financing IAF members. According to investigators, the suspect gave 50,000 roubles to militants.