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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Gunman killed on the Chechen border |
| 2005-06-15 |
| One gunman was killed after Russian servicemen blockaded two of them in a house in the southern town of Khasavyurt on Wednesday, local officials said from the town on Chechnya's border. Interior Ministry troops captured the other gunman after he was wounded. "The fighter was detained after being wounded by a sniper," said Khasavyurt Deputy Mayor Arsen Murtazaliyev. It was the latest in a series of sieges in the town, which is inhabited by people ethnically close to the Chechens and largely outside central government control. Khasavyurt, and much of the region of Dagestan, has been rocked by an overspill of violence from Chechnya, where Muslim rebels have fought Russian rule for a decade. Police and officials die on an almost daily basis in Dagestan, although it is hard to distinguish between the attacks of criminals and Islamic militants who say they want to set up an Islamic state uniting much of Russia's North Caucasus. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |