Insurgents bearing Kazakh passports killed in Russia

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On the night of July 28, on the outskirts of Makhachkala, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in Dagestan and the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) killed eight insurgents in an ambush, five of whom bore Kazakh passpsorts. Russian authorities are referring to them as "foreign mercenaries," while the separatists contend that they were Kazakhs killed by mistake.

FSB and MIA personnel, upon receiving intelligence about a possible movement of armed gang menbers, set up ambushes along their route, with the result that a gang stumbled across one of them on the night of July 28.

Their response to a request that they surrender was the opening of fire. As a result of the clash, eight insurgents were killed. During an inspection of the area where the battle took place, Kazakhstan resident passports were found on five of the eight bodies along with pistols, two automatic weapons and two expendable grenade launchers.

In commenting on this information, Russia's Audit Chamber chairman Sergey Stepashin stated that "eight more scoundrels" have been killed, five of whom, unfortunately, were Kazakhstan citizens. Stepashin believes that this is no longer a domestic problem but a foreign policy one.

At the same time, the insurgents posted their story on the Kavkaz Centre web site claiming that Russian Special Forces shot and killed the Kazakhstani residents by mistake, which they tried to cover up by planting weapons on the victims.

Kazakhstan Committee of National Security press secretary Kenzhebulat Beknazarov, stated on July 30 that after the information about the killed Kazakhstanis appeared in the media, an official inquiry was made about the incident to the Russian FSB, but a reply has not yet been received.

[KavkazCenter.com, RIAN.ru, Gazeta.kz, Vesti.kz]