:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/grupoclarin/6QRRE7GX2VCB7KVYFDNZHOCKJQ.jpg "2 police officers and 5 armed men die in attack on a checkpoint in Russia’s North Caucasus")
MOSCOW (AP) — Two police officers were killed in a militant attack on a roadblock in Russia’s North Caucasus region, authorities said Monday.
Four other officers were wounded and all five attackers died in the shootout in the Karachay-Cherkessia region on Sunday night, according to the regional delegation of the Russian Interior Ministry.
The gunmen had stormed another police checkpoint in the area the previous week, killing two police officers and wounding another, according to the Investigative Committee, the country’s main criminal investigation agency, which did not describe the affiliation or motives of the attackers. .
Although Chechnya has stabilized under Kremlin-backed leader Ramzan Kadyrov after two separatist wars, violence linked to Islamist groups has occasionally occurred elsewhere in the restive North Caucasus.
The Karachay-Cherkessia region in particular has recorded several extremist attacks against police.
The Russian Federal Security Service, the main domestic security and counterespionage agency, reported in December the arrest of 14 alleged members of a radical Islamist group in Karachay-Cherkessia. Previously, other alleged members of the same group had been arrested in the region.