Makhachkala, Russia (ANTARA News/Reuters) - At least nine people have been killed in the past two days in gunfights between police and militants in Russia`s predominantly Muslim North Caucasus, law enforcement officials said on Thursday.

Russia is struggling to quash insurgents who want to establish an Islamic state on its southern rim.

A shootout overnight in Dagestan killed two militants, two civilians and a security officer, an official in Dagestan`s Investigative Committee said. Six civilians were wounded, he said. The firefight broke out after militants shot at police vehicles, Interfax news agency reported.

Security officers killed four militants in another North Caucasus region, Kabardino-Balkaria, on Wednesday, state-run RIA news agency quoted Russia`s National Anti-Terror Committee as saying.

Daily violence in the North Caucasus is fed by a potent mix of clan loyalties, corruption and poverty. Dagestan and Kabardino-Balkaria have seen an upsurge in violence, nearly a decade after federal forces drove a separatist government from neighbouring Chechnya, the site of two devastating wars. (*)

Editor: Kunto Wibisono
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