A group of terrorists attacked a police checkpoint in the Russian Karachay-Cherkessia Republic in the North Caucasus, killing two law enforcement officers and wounding four others, local authorities said today, as cited by the Associated Press. The attack was carried out last night.
According to representatives of the local department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the five attackers died during the shootout. TASS reports that they approached the police station in a car and threw an explosive device at it. Then they opened fire with automatic weapons.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that last week the same attackers attacked another police checkpoint in the region, killing two police officers and injuring another. No details were given about the attackers' motives or their links to extremist organizations.
The AP reports that violence linked to Islamist groups has occasionally erupted in some regions of Russia's North Caucasus. The agency recalls how in December last year the Federal Security Service of Russia announced the arrest of 14 radical Islamists in Karachay-Cherkessia.