MAKHACHKALA. Jan 16 (Interfax) - Two of the four militants killed in the village of Karlanyurt, Dagestan, have been tentatively identified as Khasavyurt district residents Marat Idrisov and Arsen Khangereyev, who were wanted by the federal authorities.
"Both of them had been placed on the federal most wanted list over a series of attacks on officers of law enforcement agencies. Khangereyev had even been put on trial for his involvement with banned militant groups," a spokesman for the Dagestan branch of the Russian Investigative Committee said.
Three Kalashnikov assault rifles, two pistols, four grenades and two improvised explosive devices were confiscated from the scene of the shootout, he said.
A criminal investigation has been opened on the counts of an attempt on the life of officers of law enforcement agencies, participation in a banned militant group, the illegal possession of weapons, and the illegal production of weapons, ammunition and explosive devices.
The Russian National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) reported earlier that several militants had been killed in a counterterrorism operation in the Khasavyurt district of Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus. Two of them have already been identified.
The shootout that erupted after the militants were trapped by security forces in a privately owned house in the village of Karlanyurt also claimed the lives of three soldiers of special operations units and left another five injured.
One of the killed militants, Marat Idrisov, was the leader of the so-called Khasavyurt gang and was suspected of masterminding a terrorist attack in the city of Pyatigorsk on December 27, 2013, when a car bomb explosion killed three people and injured three more outside a traffic police station.
The second militant, Rustam Dagirov, a native of Karlanyurt village, "had been supplying militants with food and medications, allowing them to rest and receive medical treatment in his house for a long period of time," NAC said.