Three police officers were killed and eight wounded in an exchange of fire with armed fighters in Ingushetia, a republic in the Russian Caucasus, Russian news agencies reported on Thursday. The shooting took place on Wednesday evening during an “anti-terrorist operation” in the Malgobek region, when a “group of bandits” who had taken refuge in a country house in Ziazikov-Yurt opened fire on the police , according to the Ria Novosti and Interfax agencies, citing police sources.
“Three police officers were killed, eight others were injured and are currently in hospital,” said the source quoted by the Interfax agency. The operation was launched after armed assailants attacked a traffic police post on the border between Ingushetia and North Ossetia at the end of March, injuring two policemen, according to the Ria Novosti agency.
Russian Republic of the Caucasus, Ingushetia is close to Chechnya, which was the theater in the 1990s and the beginning of the 2000s of two wars between Moscow and a separatist rebellion which gradually Islamized. Although they have become very rare, attacks targeting the authorities still occur there.