You're reading: More than 20 rebels, 11 police killed in Russia’s Caucasus

MAKHACHKALA, Russia — Russian authorities say 20 militants and 11 police have been killed in several days of fighting in the volatile North Caucasus region.

Chechnya’s Moscow-backed regional leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, said his forces killed seven rebels Friday near the administrative border with neighboring province of Dagestan.

Kadyrov said in a statement that 13 other militants had been killed there earlier this week.

Dagestan’s branch of the Russian Interior Ministry said 11 police were killed and 17 others wounded in three days of clashes near the border.

In a separate clash Friday in another Caucasus province of Kabardino-Balkariya, police killed three suspected militants.

Russia’s North Caucasus has been destabilized by an Islamic insurgency that has spread across the region after two separatist wars in Chechnya.