MAGAS. April 7 (Interfax) - One of the suspected participants in armed attacks on police officers in March and April of this year has turned himself in to police in Malgobek, in Russia's internal republic of Ingushetia, an official for the region's security services told Interfax on Friday.
"Amir Bokov, 21, who was declared wanted following attacks on policemen in North Ossetia and Ingushetia, approached law enforcement agencies with his uncle and surrendered," the official said, adding that Bokov admitted to the crimes, and investigators are working with him.
The preliminary information available indicates that other suspected gang members could have hidden in a forest on the outskirts of the Malgobek district. They are Mikail Moshkhoyev, Amirkhan Gurazhev and Adam Ozdoyev, wanted by Russia's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Federal Security Service.
According to the Russian Investigative Committee, on March 27 unknown individuals fired numerous times at police officers manning the Volga 14 post in North Ossetia. Two policemen were wounded.
Law enforcement officers came under automatic weapons fire while conducting a search operation on the outskirts of Malgobek in Ingushetia on April 3. One of the officers sustained a tangential gunshot wound. The assailants fled the scene.
In the early hours of April 6, security service personnel surrounded a private house in the village of Zyazikov-Yurt, where gang members were hiding. They refused to lay down their arms. An exchange of fire then broke out, during which three law enforcement officers sustained fatal wounds.
Criminal investigations have been opened on charges of an attempt on the life of a law enforcement officer and arms trafficking. They are being handled by the Russian Investigative Committee's main department for the North Caucasus Federal District.
Law enforcement agencies said that six suspects had initially been searched for in the wake of the attacks. The dead bodies of two suspects were found later.
Ingushetia's Interior Ministry has announced a reward of three million rubles for information about the suspects. A counterterrorist operation has been underway in the republic's Malgobek district since 8:00 p.m. on April 3.