Russian news agencies reported on July 4 that two members of the so-called Kizilyurt gang were killed, along with a Russian special operations soldier, during a counterterrorism operation in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
Russia's National Antiterrorist Committee said that special-operations units pursued and killed the militants in a two-day-long chase after the soldiers came under automatic weapons fire while combing a forest near the villages of Nechayevka and Matseyevka.
The counterterrorism operation was launched after security services were alerted that the militants' "summer base" was in the forest.
A weapons cache apparently belonging to the militants was found at the site of the shoot-out, including two automatic weapons, several grenades, three rifles, a pistol, and a large amount of ammunition. Also present were components for making improvised explosive devices -- over 20 kilograms of explosives and industrially manufactured detonators, the security service said.
The Kizilyurt gang was behind a number of terror incidents recently, including the killing of two imams in Dagestan in the last year, it said.
