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Police chief in south Russia survives assassination attempt

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MAGAS, August 23 (RIA Novosti) - A district police chief in one of Russia's North Caucasus republics survived an assassination attempt Wednesday in the latest attack to rock the region, the republic's law enforcement agencies said.

A representative said a car carrying Akhmed Murzabekov, the head of the Karabulaksk district police department in Ingushetia, had come under fire at 9:30 a.m. Moscow time (5:30 a.m. GMT).

"According to witnesses, a VAZ 21-15 sedan without license plates overtook Akhmed Murzabekov's vehicle and sprayed it with automatic fire at point-blank range," an official said.

Murzabekov was hit by three bullets and was taken to the republic's central hospital.

The official said a rapid reaction group following Murzabekov's vehicle engaged the attackers, hitting their car and possibly wounding one of them, but added that the assailants escaped.

This is the latest in a series of attacks against law enforcement officials in the North Caucasus.

On August 10, the brother of a prosecutor was killed and 13 people were wounded in the third attack in two days on an officer of the law in the North Caucasus. Gerikhan Khazbiyev, the prosecutor in the Republic of Ingushetia's largest city, Nazran, survived the attack.

However, Bitar Bitarov, the prosecutor in another regional republic, Daghestan, was fatally wounded in a car bombing. The republic's interior minister, Adilgerei Magomedtagirov, survived an attempt on his life while on his way to the scene on the same day, although three policemen were killed.

The attacks came against the background of a campaign in the region to give militants the chance to surrender after Russia's terrorist number one, Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school massacre and other atrocities, was killed on July 10.

The National Anti-Terror Committee extended the term for the voluntary surrender for militants in the North Caucasus until September 30. But Chechnya's president, Alu Alkhanov, has requested that the federal authorities extend the amnesty deadline until January 1.

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