Russian forces have killed two militants in the troubled southern republic of Dagestan, local officials said on Friday.

The men were shot dead during an overnight raid on a house in the village of Mutsalaul in Dagestan's Khasavyurt district, police said.

Russia is battling a low-level Ismalist insurgency in Dagestan and other regions of the mainly Muslim North Caucasus.

In a separate incident on Friday, a police officer and a passer-by were killed in an attack in the region's main city, Makhachkala.