Thanks to “gunmen” and “militants.” Towards the end of this report, these gunmen are given a clearer motivation: “the fighting, fueled by a separatist insurgency and radical Islam, appears to be spreading throughout the North Caucasus.” Add to that the Russian president’s remarks, where he blamed foreign “freaks” for inciting the violence, and “extremism supplied to us from abroad,” and you get a better idea of the nature of the insurgency.
“Gunmen kill top judge, wound 3 in North Caucasus,” by Shamsudin Bokov for Taiwan News, June 10:
Gunmen shot and killed a top judge as she dropped her children off at school in Russia’s violent North Caucasus Wednesday, officials said. The brazen daylight killing highlighted spiraling violence in the region that includes Chechnya.
Militants, meanwhile, battled police forces after attacking a police post with automatic weapons and mortars in another part of the North Caucasus. That assault in Dagestan came just hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev paid a high-profile, televised visit to the region in an effort to showcase official efforts to stamp out the violence.
The violence _ plus last week’s sniper assassination of Dagestan’s top law enforcement officer _ have raised serious doubts about Kremlin efforts to calm the North Caucasus after years of war in Chechnya.
In Ingushetia, the van carrying Aza Gazgireeva, a deputy chief justice of the regional Supreme Court, was attacked opposite a kindergarten in the region’s main city, Nazran. She had just dropped her children off at the school, said Madina Khadzaeva, an Interior Ministry spokeswoman.
Gazgireeva died later at a hospital, she said. At least three other people were also wounded.
Russian news agencies cited investigators as saying Gazgireeva was likely killed for her role in investigating the 2004 attack on Ingush police forces by Chechen militants.
Home to hundreds of refugees from the wars in Chechnya to the south, Ingushetia is one of Russia’s poorest regions. In recent years, as violence has spilled over from Chechnya, the region has suffered the most of all the North Caucasus regions.
Dagestan, which borders Chechnya to the east, has also seen a spike in attacks on police and government officials. Last week, the region’s Interior Minister was killed by a sniper as he stood outside a wedding celebration.
That killing prompted Medvedev to make an unannounced visit to Dagestan Tuesday, visiting police bases and reviewing troops _ a visit that was covered lavishly by state-controlled TV. Medvedev blamed foreign “freaks” for inciting the violence, “extremism supplied to us from abroad.”
Hours after Medvedev left Dagestan, a riot police officer was shot and killed as he headed home after work _ an attack that occurred near a base where Medvedev had observed counterterrorism exercises. In another part of the Dagestan capital, a road police officer was killed after trying to stop a car to check documents.
Before dawn Wednesday, a group of 10 gunmen attacked a police post with automatic weapons and mortars in southern Dagestan, battling police troops for more than an hour. The gunmen later escaped into the forested mountains, said regional Interior Ministry spokesman Mark Tolchinsky.
He said no casualties were reported among law enforcement officers; it was unclear whether the gunmen suffered casualties.
Nearly 15 years of war in Chechnya has largely dwindled to sporadic hit-and-run attacks, but the fighting, fueled by a separatist insurgency and radical Islam, appears to be spreading throughout the North Caucasus.
The Kremlin in April announced a formal end to its so-called “counterterrorism operations” in Chechnya, handing over control for police operations to Chechya’s leader, Ramzan Kadyrov.