Summary Akhmedov is believed to be behind at least 20 terrorist attacks in Derbent in the past two years.
MAKHACHKALA (AP) - Russia s main anti-terror agency said Friday its forces have killed five suspected militants including a prominent warlord during a raid in the restive southern province of Dagestan.
The National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement that the militants were killed Friday in Derbent on the Caspian Sea. It said that security forces acting on a tip surrounded a house where the militants were holed up. They refused to surrender and were killed in a gunfight.
The Committee said that one of the suspects, Sherif Akhmedov, was the leader of a group of militants suspected of staging a series of attacks on police and other authorities and running an extortion racket targeting local businesses.
Rasul Temirbekov, spokesman for Dagestan s Investigative Committee, told The Associated Press that Akhmedov is believed to be behind at least 20 terrorist attacks in Derbent in the past two years including bus bombings and a July attack on the rabbi of a local synagogue.
Dagestan has become the epicenter of an Islamic rebellion that spread across Russia s North Caucasus region after two separatist wars in Chechnya.
