No Let-up In Insurgency Related Violence In Dagestan

Dagestan’s Interior Ministry reported today (December 9) that a cache of weapons was discovered in Karabudakhentsky district on the Caspian Sea coast. According to the ministry, police found a bag containing four F-1 hand grenades, five RGD-5 grenades, an RPG-18 grenade launcher, a GP-25 under-barrel grenade launcher, three fuses, 120 7.62 mm rounds, five industrial detonators, a signal flare and four kilograms of ammonium nitrate.

Earlier today (December 9), someone threw a grenade into the yard of a home in the Dagestani city of Kaspiisk. The incident took place around 1:40 a.m., local time. The blast broke a window in the house, whose occupant was home at the time of the attack but no one was hurt (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, December 9).  

Yesterday (December 8), one policeman was killed and five other people were wounded when unidentified gunmen fired on police in Dagestan’s Kizlyar district. The incident happened around 8:25 p.m., local time, on the Kizlyar-Komsomolskoe highway on the outskirts of the village of Kosyakino. A UAZ police car came under fire and a car being driven by a resident of the village of Shaumyan was also hit by gunfire. Three policemen and three civilians were hospitalized with gunshot wounds. One of the victims, a police lieutenant who was a special investigator with the Kizlyar district branch of the Interior Ministry, later died in the hospital (www.regnum.ru, December 8).

An explosion occurred on a section of the Grozny-Baku oil pipeline in Dagestan’s Karabudakhkentsky district on the evening of December 7. The incident took place around three kilometers from the village of Manas when an explosive device that had been placed under the pipeline detonated. According to the Dagestani Interior Ministry, the explosion left a 10-12 centimeter dent in the pipeline, but did not cause any oil to leak (www.dagpravda.ru, December 8).

On December 6, two large bombs detonated separately in the Dagestani city of Kizilyurt, wounding three policemen and a security guard at a shop. One explosion, which happened just after midnight, local time, had the force of five kilograms of TNT and wounded a security guard. The blast also damaged the shop, leaving behind a crater one meter wide and 50 centimeters deep. When police arrived at the scene of the first blast in an armored vehicle, a second explosive device detonated with the force of 10 kilograms of TNT. The vehicle was seriously damaged, and three policemen suffered contusions and were hospitalized. The second blast left behind a crater 4.5 meters wide and one meter deep (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, December 6).

On December 4, bomb disposal specialists from the Dagestanti branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) defused an improvised explosive device discovered in Makhachkala, the republic’s capital, along a road not far from the Servernyi railway station. According to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee’s branch in Dagestan, the IED consisted of a metal pipe filled with ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder and metal fragments, and would have detonated with a force of five kilograms of TNT (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, December 4).

On December 3, unidentified attackers fired a grenade launcher at the headquarters of the company Kavkazregiongaz in the city of Khasavyurt. The building was slightly damaged but no one was hurt in the incident, which the police qualified as an act of “hooliganism” (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, December 4).

On December 2, four gunmen driving in a Lada-Priora car opened fire on a group of policemen on the outskirts of the village of Nizhnie Bukhty in Dagestan’s Kizlyar district. None of the policemen was hurt, but one of the attackers was killed when the police fired back, while the other three attackers managed to escape. The slain gunman was identified as Shaikhi Sheikov, who was wanted for murder. Police found an assortment of weapons and ammunition in the Lada-Priora (www.ria.ru, December 3).

Also on December 2, police in Dagestan’s Derbentsky district discovered three weapons caches on the outskirts of the village of Gezhuk. Among the items found in the caches were two improvised explosive devices ready for use; components for making other IEDs, including a large quantity of ammonium nitrate; and medical supplies, food and drinking water.

In yet another incident on December 2, unidentified gunmen in the Dagestani city of Izberbash shot up a Toyota Land Cruiser being driven by Dzhamal Magomedov, the manager of a branch of the Esid Bank. Magomedov was wounded in the attack and hospitalized (www.kavkaz-uzel.ru, December 3).