MOSCOW - At least five police and security forces officers were killed in fighting with suspected militants in the Russian North Caucasus region of Dagestan, the regional Interior Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday.
Russian forces encircled the militants in a forest in Kizlyar district of Dagestan, about 150 km (93 miles) northwest of the regional capital Makhachkala and were fighting the group for a second day.
A representative for the Investigative Committee told Russian news agencies that at least one militant was killed.
Predominantly Muslim Dagestan is plagued by violence linked to an Islamist insurgency that persists on Russia's southern rim, a decade after federal forces drove separatists from power in the neighboring province of Chechnya.
