A 15-hour siege culminates in total ruins, dead militants and Special Forces casualties in Makhachkala

DAGESTAN, January 16, Caucasus Times – A special forces operation conducted in the outskirts of Makhachkala, the regional Interior Ministry and FSB officials said in their interview with Caucasus Times correspondent. Police squads and FSB agents had blocked at least five insurgents in a house, when the operation started.
Special forces cordoned off the area and began a storm that culminated 15 hours later in total destruction of the militants, the house and the death of an FSB “Alfa” officer. Another agent was reported wounded.

After the siege had been over, Col. Abdulmanap Musayev, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry of Dagestan said in his interview with the journalists, that the extremists were completely destroyed. However, the exact number had not been established as yet, Mr. Musayev said.

Meanwhile, Nikolai Gryaznov, head of the regional branch of Federal Security Service stated, that in the cities of Makhachkala and Kaspiysk two terror attacks were prevented, similar to that in Beslan of North Ossetia.

The counterterrorism operations against insurgent underground have been prepared, according to the FSB official quite a long time ago. “We had collected operational information and conducted dozens of inspections and searches. As a result we managed to track down the militants who had been staging a terrible terror attack,” Mr. Griyaznov was quoted as saying.

He said that during a special task operation a notorious terrorist Mohamedzagir Akayev had been killed in Kaspiysk during a storm, whose body was wrapped in “a mortar’s belt”. During the battle the commander of Dagestan Special Forces squad Col. Arzulum Iliyasov and two policemen were reported killed. An insurgent was destroyed, two others were seized, the FSB official said

In the recent year over, according to the regional Interior Ministry, 15 employees of law enforcement agencies have died in battles with militants.