MAKHACHKALA (Russia), Oct 21: Gunmen killed five

policemen and wounded another nine in Russia’s turbulent North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Tuesday, and a special operation was under way to seize the attackers, a police source said.

The losses appear to be the largest in months among the forces deployed in predominantly Muslim Dagestan, a poor mountainous region that borders Chechnya.

One police officer was killed and three were injured when their car came under fire after being ambushed in a forest area southwest of the regional capital of Makhachkala, said a press officer for regional police who declined to be named.

“As a result of this incident a search was launched to find the gunmen. The group of police conducting the search were trapped in a forest on the border between the Sergokalinsky and Karabudakhkinsky districts,” he said.

“A gunfight started in which four police were killed and six injured,” the source added. He said casualties among the gunmen were unknown.

“The gunfight has been under way for about five hours now.” Federal forces in Chechnya have largely pacified rebel activity after fighting two severe wars there since the 1990s.

But in Dagestan and neighbouring Ingushetia rebel attacks have increased.

Human rights bodies say unemployment, a lack of opportunities and tough reprisals by security bodies push young men in Dagestan towards the rebel movement which security forces say is linked to radical Islamists.

—Reuters