Violence in Russia's North Caucasus kills 12-agencies
Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:35 GMT
* Eight militants, four police killed
* Regional insurgency leader killed (Updates death toll, adds details)
MOSCOW, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Clashes between Russian security forces and militants killed 12 people on Friday, including the regional leader of an insurgent group fighting to carve out an Islamic state in the turbulent North Caucasus region, news agencies reported.
More than a decade after federal forces toppled a rebel government in Chechnya, Russia is still struggling to contain an insurgency across its mainly Muslim Caucasus region, where it plans to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
A shootout in the region of Dagestan on Friday killed five militants and four Interior Ministry troops, Itar-Tass news agency reported, citing a source from the local Investigative Committee.
Security forces also killed three militants in Ingushetia who had blockaded themselves in a private home in the village of Ekazhevo, the hometown of a suicide bomber who killed 37 at Moscow's busiest airport last year, news agencies reported.
Russia's Anti-Terrorism Committee said one of the men killed, Dzhamaleil Mutaliyev, was the leader of the Caucasus Emirate in Ingushetia and was the confidante of Shamil Basayev, mastermind of some of Russia's bloodiest attacks.
The insurgency, rooted in two Chechen separatist wars, is led by Chechen-born Doku Umarov, who claimed responsibility for the airport bombing.
"One of the militants was ... one of the leaders of the international terrorist organisation 'Caucasus Emirate', who was wanted by federal forces," Itar-Tass quoetd Anti-Terrorism Committee spokesman Nikolai Sintsov as saying.
Basayev was killed in 2006, about two years after he sent separatists to storm School No. 1 in Beslan in 2004, prompting a botched rescue effort in which 331 people, most of them children, died. (Reporting By Thomas Grove Editing by Maria Golovnina)
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