AQTOBE, Kazakhstan -- Two people have been killed in a shoot-out and explosion in Kazakhstan's northwestern city of Aqtobe, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.
Kazakh Interior Ministry officials said unknown assailants shot at a group of police on the outskirts of Aqtobe and killed one policeman.
The attackers also detonated a bomb that destroyed a house and killed one unidentified person. A second person was injured by the blast.
Aqtobe Interior Ministry officials also said today that police found a gun and a large quantity of explosives during a search in the village of Kenkiyaq.
Two policemen were killed by unidentified attackers on July 1 in the village of Shubarshi, also in the Aqtobe region.
Earlier this week, Aqtobe Interior Ministry spokesman Almat Imanghaliev told journalists that on July 25 police shot dead a man suspected of involvement in the killing of a 22-year-old man two weeks earlier.
In May, Kazakhstan's first-ever suicide bomber, Rakhimzhan Makhatov, 25, blew himself up in the entrance to the Aqtobe branch of the National Security Committee. Three people were injured in the blast.
In February, a car exploded outside a prison camp in the Aqtobe region, causing minor damage.
The Kazakh authorities have repeatedly denied any link between the various incidents in Aqtobe.
Read more in Russian here and here
Kazakh Interior Ministry officials said unknown assailants shot at a group of police on the outskirts of Aqtobe and killed one policeman.
The attackers also detonated a bomb that destroyed a house and killed one unidentified person. A second person was injured by the blast.
Aqtobe Interior Ministry officials also said today that police found a gun and a large quantity of explosives during a search in the village of Kenkiyaq.
Two policemen were killed by unidentified attackers on July 1 in the village of Shubarshi, also in the Aqtobe region.
Earlier this week, Aqtobe Interior Ministry spokesman Almat Imanghaliev told journalists that on July 25 police shot dead a man suspected of involvement in the killing of a 22-year-old man two weeks earlier.
In May, Kazakhstan's first-ever suicide bomber, Rakhimzhan Makhatov, 25, blew himself up in the entrance to the Aqtobe branch of the National Security Committee. Three people were injured in the blast.
In February, a car exploded outside a prison camp in the Aqtobe region, causing minor damage.
The Kazakh authorities have repeatedly denied any link between the various incidents in Aqtobe.
Read more in Russian here and here