Seven policemen wounded by rebels in southern Russia

Published March 15, 2011 at 11:33 am

In this Jan. 6, 2010 file photo, police officers and investigators stand at the site of a suicide attack on a police station on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the provincial capital of Russia's Dagestan region. Clashes between authorities and Islamic militants have become part of everyday life in Dagestan, the largest and most violent of Russia's mostly Muslim provinces in the North Caucasus, a breeding ground for terror spreading all the way to Moscow.

Photo by AP

Police in Russia's restive southern province of Dagestan say that seven policemen have been wounded by militants.

Local police spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said that several gunmen drove to a police precinct in the town of Kizilyurt late March 14. They sprayed the building with automatic gunfire and then detonated a car bomb, which shattered windows and damaged the roof.

In a separate incident March 15, police shot and killed three suspected militants on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Makhachkala.

Dagestan and other provinces in Russia’s North Caucasus have been destabilized by an Islamic insurgency that has spread across the region following two separatist wars in nearby Chechnya.

Dagestan has emerged as the main base for Islamic militants, who launch near daily attacks on police and other authorities.