During week of May 19-25, 2014, 13 persons fell victim to armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

During the week of May 19-25, 2014, at least 13 persons suffered in the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. Of them, 12 persons were killed, and 1 person was wounded. These are the results of calculations made by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The death toll includes 11 suspected members of the armed underground, including seven in Ingushetia and four in Kabardino-Balkaria, and one law enforcer in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Special and counterterrorist operations

On May 23, a regime of counterterrorist operation (CTO) was introduced within the administrative boundaries of the city of Baksan in Kabardino-Balkaria. Law enforcers have blocked a group of suspected militants in one of the private houses of the city. For the period of the special operation, residents of neighbouring buildings were evacuated. When offered to surrender, people blocked in the private house opened fire from automatic weapons. The law enforcers have entered into a gunfight with them. The suspected militants were intensively shelling law enforcers from the dugout. As a result of the special operation, four suspected militants were killed. They were members of the illegal armed formation (IAF), which was a part of the terrorist organization "Imarat Kavkaz". One of the killed men was identified as Astemir Berkhamov, the leader of the IAF, and three other killed men were his associates. As a result of the armed clash, an agent of the Russian FSB was fatally wounded. No civilian casualties were reported. According to relatives of Anatoly Natov, the owner of the blocked house, he has been detained, and he is kept at the IVS (temporary detention facility).

In the morning of May 24, during the special operation held in the village of Sagopshi of the Malgobek District of Ingushetia, law enforcers blocked a private house, in which, according to them, a grouping of militants was hiding. When offered to lay down arms and surrender, the blocked suspects opened fire. After armed clash and fire in the house, seven bodies of militants were found, including five members of the armed underground, the owner of the house blocked by the law enforcers, and his wife. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), the killed wife of the house owner also took part in the shootout. No law enforcers who carried out the special operation suffered. The killed men were identified as Arthur Getagazhev, "the Emir of Ingushetia", the leader of the IAF, acting on the territory of Ingushetia, and Akhmed Evloev and Magomed Polonkoev, IAF members.

Bombings and terror acts

On May 19, at about 10:00 Moscow time, an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated near the private house No. 30 located in Mursalov Street in Makhachkala. As a result of the explosion, a man, born in 1973, who passed by the place of the incident, got a shrapnel wounds. Upon the fact of the explosion, the police have initiated a criminal case under Article "hooliganism".

Detentions

On May 21, in Kabardino-Balkaria, a 25-year-old resident of the village of Dugulubgei was detained on suspicion of possessing explosive devices and providing assistance to members of illegal armed formations (IAFs). In the Gazel car, driven by the young man, law enforcers found an improvised explosive device (IED) with power of 200 grams of TNT equivalent, an RGD-5 grenade, and 48 cartridges of various calibres. The detainee has admitted that since 2012, he provided assistance to members of the armed underground, acting in the Baksan District: he supplied them with food, medicines, ammunition, and vehicles.

On May 23, in the house belonging to a resident of the Cossack village of Troitskaya of the Sunzha District of Ingushetia, policemen found and seized an arsenal of weapons stored there. From the house located in Chapaev Street, law enforcers seized three Kalashnikov submachine guns, one foreign-made pistol with ammunition, an improvised gun without ammunition, various parts for firearms, two universal fuses, flares, and more than 450 cartridges. The house owner and his brother were detained.