The leader of the Caspian group identified as Zaur Sheikhmagomedov was gunned down in the provincial capital of Makhachkala, after he opened fire on police officers, a representative of Dagestan's Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti.
Attacks on security forces, police and civilians occur regularly in Dagestan and other provinces of Russia's North Caucasus, generated by ethnic, religious and political rivalries, as well as poverty and corruption.
The violence is also fed by an Islamist insurgency, which has been especially resilient in Dagestan and fueled a series of bloody post-Soviet separatist wars in the neighboring republic of Chechnya.
(U.H-AK)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
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