Russia launches Sochi terror swoop after bodies found in cars RUSSIA has launched a counter-terrorism operation after five bodies riddled with bullets were found in a region bordering Winter Olympics host Sochi, just weeks before the start of the Games. Two districts in southern Stavropol were placed on alert after the bodies were found yesterday in parked cars, at least one of them apparently booby-trapped. Stavropol borders the Krasnodar region, where the Black Sea resort of Sochi is located. Authorities have launched the most sweeping security operation in Olympic history, a month before Russia's first post-Soviet Games kick off on February 7. Russia particularly fears attacks by Islamist militants from the North Caucasus during the prestigious event, after two suicide bombings at a rail station and in a trolley bus last month in the city of Volgograd killed 34. As police examined one of the cars in Stavropol, which contained the body of a local resident who had been shot in the head, an improvised explosive device went off about 20m away, causing no injuries. Officers then defused another device nearby, the Interfax news agency reported. A source told Interfax the two devices were packed with small metal elements such as screws to cause maximum injury. Two other bodies were identified as local taxi drivers and were found in the back seat and in the boots of their Lada cars. The remaining two bodies were found in a parked car.