MOSCOW -- Gunmen have killed three police officers in the normally peaceful North Caucasus republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Russian news agencies have reported.
Interfax news agency quotes a regional police official as saying unknown gunmen followed the three traffic police into a cafe, shot them, then ran away.
Throughout Russia's North Caucasus republics, which includes North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Ingushetia, Dagestan, and Chechnya, groups of gunmen have begun killing police and former security forces over the past few months.
Two wars in Chechnya since 1994 have spilled over into Dagestan and Ingushetia and sent refugees to North Ossetia and Karadino-Balkaria.