The Russian Interior Ministry says hundreds of militants have been apprehended or killed in the volatile North Caucasus region in 2015.
The ministry's branch in the North Caucasus said in a statement on October 29 that "447 ringleaders and militants have been neutralized or detained" since January 1 in "1,345 successful security operations" held in the mainly Muslim-populated region.
Russia's North Caucasus region has been beset by violence linked to an Islamist insurgency rooted in two post-Soviet separatist wars in Chechnya as well as organized crime, political disputes, and clan rivalries.
Russian officials said earlier that a few thousand Russian citizens, mainly from the North Caucasus, were fighting along with Islamic militants in Syria and Iraq.
