Russia: 11 allied with IS group killed in North Caucasus

Russian law enforcement officers raid a hideout in the North Caucasus of armed militants allied with the Islamic State group, killing all 11 of them in an exchange of fire, the counter-terrorism agency says.

The reinforced base in a wooded, mountainous area on the outskirts of Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkaria republic, contained a workshop for producing explosive devices and a stockpile of weapons and ammunition, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee says in a statement. It says all 11 militants were killed after opening fire on the officers and using grenades, while there were no fatalities among the officers.

An Islamic insurgency has long simmered in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus republics of southern Russia. The region, which includes Chechnya and Dagestan, has become fertile ground for IS propaganda and recruitment, and the majority of the estimated 3,000 Russians fighting in Syria are believed to come from the North Caucasus.

The agency says the group of militants killed in Sunday’s raid were allied with IS and had helped to send local residents to Syria to fight with IS.

— AP