On January 16-22, four persons perished in armed conflict in Northern Caucasus

During the week from January 16 to January 22, 2017, in the course of the armed conflict in Northern Caucasus, according to the available information, four persons perished; no wounded ones were reported. These are the results of the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" based on its own materials and information from other open sources.

According to law enforcers, all the casualties had been associated with the extremist underground: one in Chechnya and three in Dagestan.

Attacks on law enforcers

On January 17, on the Makhachkala Highway in Khasavyurt, policemen tried to stop a VAZ-21010 car for inspection. The driver opened fire on them and was shot dead by return fire. He was identified as the 38-year-old Ruslan Magomedov.

Special and counterterrorist operations

On January 16, residents of Chechnya reported that a local law enforcer, earlier a personal guard of the head of Chechnya, died after being detained in the village of Kurchaloi. He was detained there on suspicion of having links with the villagers who had planned attacks. The head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said that the perished Alikhan Muzaev had never been his bodyguard. According to Kadyrov, Muzaev had been shadowed, which allowed establishing a number of militants. Kadyrov has added that when Muzaev was invited to come to the police station, he committed suicide.

On January 17, parts of the Buynaksk District and the adjacent Karabudakhkent District of Dagestan were put under the counterterrorist operation (CTO) regime. According to local residents, they almost did not feel any effect of the CTO. On the following day, the CTO regime was lifted.

On January 21, a CTO was launched in the village of Vperyod, Kizlyar District of Dagestan. Power agents blocked a house and tried to negotiate with the people inside, but they refused to surrender and opened fire. As a result of the shootout, two militants were killed. They were identified as the 29-year-old Rashid Asulbekov, a resident of the Kizlyar District, and Ruslan Magomedrasulov, an earlier convicted native of the village of Novy Kostek, Khasavyurt District; both were members of the "Khasavyurt" militant grouping.

Detentions

On January 16, in Dagestan, a 46-year-old resident of the Maisky District of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) was detained. He is suspected of killing, on January 11 a resident of Nalchik from a submachine gun.

On January 16, a source from structures of the North-Caucasian Federal District (NCFD) reported that as a result of a special operation conducted in Chechnya, bout 60 militants of the terrorist organization "Islamic State" (IS), banned in Russia, and their helpers were detained. The large-scale special operation was conducted in the Kurchaloi District, several dwelling settlements of the Shali District and in Grozny. In particular, three residents of the Chechen city of Shali were detained on suspicion of links with militants. They confessed that they had been members the grouping of Imran Datsaev, law enforcement bodies assert.

On January 21, it became known that Turpal-Ali Mitsaev was detained in the Vedeno District of Chechnya; according to power agents, a grenade was found on him during a search.