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Two Russian police officers shot dead in Dagestan

20 April 2010 22:19 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Two police officers were shot dead early Tuesday in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan, said local authorities, APA reports quoting News.xinhuanet.com web-page.

Unidentified assailants opened fire at a traffic police post when their car was stopped for security check at around 2 a.m. Moscow time (2200 GMT Monday) in the regional capital Makhachkala.

"One traffic police officer was killed immediately, the other died on his way to hospital," the RIA Novosti news agency quoted the regional interior ministry as saying.

Russia’s North Caucasus republics, particularly Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, have been plagued by violence. Law enforcement officers have become a main target by rebels.

On Monday, the car of Beslan Shadiyev, deputy interior minister of the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, was hit by a bomb. The explosion injured four people, including the driver. The minister was not in the car when the bomb went off.

The Emergency Situations Ministry earlier this month announced plans to set up an emergency center for possible crisis in the North Caucasus Federal District.