Yeoman
02-02-2005, 08:47 PM
Top Cop, Bodyguards Gunned Down in Russia
Wed Feb 2, 4:38 PM ET Europe - AP
By ARSEN MOLLAYEV, Associated Press Writer
MAKHACHKALA, Russia - A top-ranking regional police officer and three bodyguards were gunned down in southern Russia late Wednesday, police said. The assassination was the latest attack in the troubled region bordering war-wracked Chechnya (news - web sites).
Maj. Gen. Magomed Omarov, a deputy interior minister for Dagestan, was driving home from work with bodyguards driving behind him in a second car when unknown assailants fired on the cars, said Abdul Musayev, a spokesman for the Dagestan Interior Ministry.
Omarov and his bodyguards all died at the scene, near the center of the regional capital, Makhachkala, Musayev said. Another bodyguard was wounded.
Dagestan, an ethnically diverse region on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, has seen a steady stream of shootings, bombings and other violence, some spilling over from neighboring Chechnya to the west and some committed by local criminal gangs.
It was the second time Omarov had been attacked in the past two years, the Interfax news agency reported. In May 2003, the car Omarov was riding in was hit by a roadside bomb in the center of Makhachkala. Omarov suffered only a concussion in the attack.
Earlier this month, five gunmen held off dozens of heavily armed security forces for more than 15 hours at a house on the outskirts of Makhachkala, 1,000 miles south of Moscow. The standoff ended with a tank razing the house. All five gunmen were killed.
Dagestan officials said the gunmen had been preparing a major terror attack, similar to the one in Beslan, the city in southern Russia where more than 330 people died in a school hostage-taking last September.
Wed Feb 2, 4:38 PM ET Europe - AP
By ARSEN MOLLAYEV, Associated Press Writer
MAKHACHKALA, Russia - A top-ranking regional police officer and three bodyguards were gunned down in southern Russia late Wednesday, police said. The assassination was the latest attack in the troubled region bordering war-wracked Chechnya (news - web sites).
Maj. Gen. Magomed Omarov, a deputy interior minister for Dagestan, was driving home from work with bodyguards driving behind him in a second car when unknown assailants fired on the cars, said Abdul Musayev, a spokesman for the Dagestan Interior Ministry.
Omarov and his bodyguards all died at the scene, near the center of the regional capital, Makhachkala, Musayev said. Another bodyguard was wounded.
Dagestan, an ethnically diverse region on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, has seen a steady stream of shootings, bombings and other violence, some spilling over from neighboring Chechnya to the west and some committed by local criminal gangs.
It was the second time Omarov had been attacked in the past two years, the Interfax news agency reported. In May 2003, the car Omarov was riding in was hit by a roadside bomb in the center of Makhachkala. Omarov suffered only a concussion in the attack.
Earlier this month, five gunmen held off dozens of heavily armed security forces for more than 15 hours at a house on the outskirts of Makhachkala, 1,000 miles south of Moscow. The standoff ended with a tank razing the house. All five gunmen were killed.
Dagestan officials said the gunmen had been preparing a major terror attack, similar to the one in Beslan, the city in southern Russia where more than 330 people died in a school hostage-taking last September.