On July 4-10, 2016, 17 persons fell victim to armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

During the week of July 4-10, 2016, 17 persons fell victim to the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus. Of them, 13 persons were killed, and four others were wounded. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

The death toll includes two civilians, two law enforcers and nine suspected members of the armed underground, all of them in Dagestan.

Special and counterterrorist operations

On July 7, the counterterrorist operation (CTO) legal regime was introduced in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan. In a forest, 2 km from the village of Paraul, law enforcers discovered a group of armed men. When offered to surrender, they opened fire, and the law enforcers opened fire in return. During the special operation, nine militants and one FSB agent were killed, and four other law enforcers were wounded. The number of the killed men includes preliminary identified Gusein Taghirov, the leader of the "Makhachkala" grouping of militant, and six of its members, including 28-year-old Magomed Taghirov, 22-year-old Gusein Magomedov, 23-year-old Efendi Medjidov, 20-year-old Akhmed Ismailov, 36-year-old Rasul Khalilov, and 27-year-old Akhmed Zagirov. In the village of Novy Paraul, law enforcers detained two accomplices of militant grouping and seized from them an improvised explosive device (IED) of high power and ammunition. When combat engineers attempted to demine the IED, it detonated, no one was injured. On July 8, the CTO legal regime was lifted.

Attacks on civilians

On July 9, in a forest near the village of Sergokala, several unidentified persons attacked tourists. Two men, one of whom was a policeman, got several gunshot wounds. They died at the place from the wounds. Then, the attackers fled in a Mercedes-Benz car belonging to the killed men. One or two other persons from the group of tourists could presumably stay inside the car. Investigators suggest that the attackers could be members of the armed underground, who on the other day stole another car and then left it.

At night of July 10, in the Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan, a school principal of the Gubden village school was killed. Unidentified men called him into the street. There, after a verbal altercation, they stabbed him several times with knives and fled. The school principal died from the stab wounds he got. According to other reports, the man was shot and killed.