Militants attack police targets in Russia's Chechnya


Reuters | Updated: 20-08-2018 20:39 IST | Created: 20-08-2018 19:50 IST
  • Country:
  • Russian Federation

Militants in the Russian region of Chechnya staged a series of attacks against police targets on Monday, the leader of the region and law enforcement officials said, amid one unconfirmed report that Islamic State had claimed responsibility.

Two knife-wielding assailants tried to enter a police station in Chechnya's Shalinsky district and attacked and wounded two police officers, investigators said. Both attackers were shot dead, the TASS news agency reported.

In a separate incident in the village of Mesker-Yurt, a young man carrying a rucksack blew himself up at a police post, but did not injure anyone, investigators said.

And in a third incident, police officers in Grozny, the Chechen capital, opened fire with automatic weapons on a driver in a Mercedes who tried to run down two traffic police officers, investigators said.

Moscow has fought two wars with separatists in the mainly Muslim internal republic since the 1991 Soviet collapse, but such attacks have become relatively rare in Chechnya.

The wider North Caucasus region remains volatile however with unemployment and corruption pushing some young men to embrace radical Islam.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, who was on a trip to Saudi Arabia, said the attacks were designed to overshadow the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

The SITE intelligence group reported Islamic State had taken responsibility for the attacks, something Reuters was not immediately able to verify. 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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