MAKHACHKALA, March 9 (RIA Novosti) - Two gunmen were shot dead when a group of unidentified attackers opened fire on police in Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said.

Police in the village of Mutsaul, in Dagestan’s Khasavyurt district, came under attack, killing two of the assailants by the return fire.

There were no casualties among police or civilians, the ministry said.

The Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to the republic of Chechnya, has spread across the North Caucasus in recent years. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are reported regularly in the neighboring republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

Over a decade after the war against Islamist separatists in Chechnya ended, Russian security forces continue to fight militants in the volatile region.