MAKHACHKALA, August 14 (RIA Novosti) - Police have identified some of the militants who killed 11 people during an attack on a police post and nearby health center in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan last night.
"The identity of some of the militants, including their leader, has been established, but will not be disclosed pending an investigation. They are all on the federal wanted list for various crimes," a police spokesman told RIA Novosti.
Initial reports on Thursday said six people, four police officers and two civilians, were killed when gunmen opened fire on a police post in the Caspian Sea town of Buinaksk.
The attackers then broke into a nearby sauna and gunned down seven women.
A police source in Dagestan said some 15 gunmen were believed to have taken part in the attack.
"They are known to have seized a minivan from a local resident in which they arrived at the police post," the official said.
The owner of the minivan has identified two of the militants as Buinaksk residents, the police official said. He also said efforts to trace the attackers were continuing in a wooded area where they had fled.
Also in Dagestan on Thursday, two police officers were wounded in separate sniper attacks in the republic's capital, Makhachkala.
Three suspected militants were killed overnight in the republic's Derbent district when police tried to stop a car for a document check. The people inside opened fire and were killed when police returned fire. Several assault rifles were found in the vehicle.
Sappers are meanwhile continuing to defuse a bomb, a 12-liter bucket filled with explosives, planted near a railroad in Makhachkala's suburbs.
Dagestan, which neighbors Chechnya, has seen an upsurge in militant violence in recent months, with attacks on police and federal forces being a regular occurrence. In June, Dagestan's interior minister was assassinated at a wedding reception.
