Russia says it killed six ISIS terrorist operatives in the North Caucasus region

Six alleged members of the Islamic State group were killed in a shootout in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region, in what the country’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) describes as a “counterterrorism operation.”

According to a statement by the NAC, the six men barricaded themselves in a third-floor apartment in Karabulak, a town of about 30,000 in Russia’s semi-autonomous Republic of Ingushetia. A shootout with security services followed, as surrounding streets were blocked off and residents of the apartment block evacuated to a nearby school, according to Russia’s Interfax agency.

Heavy gunfire and blasts appearing to come from inside an apartment block could be heard in videos posted by Karabulak residents on social media.

The NAC claims that security services found automatic weapons, ammunition, hand grenades, and homemade explosives inside the apartment where the men were hiding out.