Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev visited on Friday the site of a recent deadly suicide bombing in Makhachkala, the capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.

Wednesday's attack, which took the lives of five police officers, saw a suicide bomber attempt to drive a car into a traffic police depot. The explosion occurred after the bomber's car was blocked off by a police vehicle. Eighteen police officers and 6 civilians were also wounded in the attack.

Makhachkala police chief Akhmed Magomedov told Nurgaliyev that all necessary measures were being taken to identify those involved in the attack.

On Thursday, two militants with suspected links to the attack were killed after being surrounded in a private house in the village of Kormaskala in the republic's Kumtorkalinsky District.

Nurgaliyev also visited police officers wounded in Wednesday's blast and presented them with service awards.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that Russia must maintain its tough line against militants in the volatile North Caucasus.

"As far as these criminals are concerned, our policy remains the same," Medvedev said during a meeting with Alexander Bortnikov, head of the Federal Security Service (FSB). "They should simply be eliminated, and this must be done systematically."

Russia's North Caucasus republics, in particular Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya, saw a sharp rise in militant activity in 2009.

MAKHACHKALA, January 8 (RIA Novosti)