Authorities say two police officers and three alleged militants have been killed in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Chechnya.

Regional leader Ramzan Kadyrov said on January 30 that the three men opened fire on police officers who asked for their identification documents.

He said the exchange of gunfire took place in the central town of Shali overnight.

According to Kadyrov, the three men opened fire at police when requested to present their identification documents.

Kadyrov said authorities believe they were members of a militant group coordinated online by Magomed Rashidov, a Shali native who has allegedly joined Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria.

The security situation remains unstable in Chechnya, where Moscow waged two wars against separatists following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Based on reporting by chechnya.gov.ru and Interfax

</s>Three militans and two policemen were killed in a shoot-out following an attack on police in Russia's Chechnya region, Chechenya' leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Monday.

Blaming militants for being Daesh-linked, Kadyrov said that they attacked a police post in Chali, a town about 30 kilometres (20 miles) south of the capital Grozny, during the night.

Two policemen and three assailants were killed during the fire-fight, Kadyrov was quoted as saying in a statement from his office. Two civilians were wounded.

Russia fought two brutal separatist wars over the past two decades in Chechnya but the region has been largely pacified under pro-Moscow Kadyrov's iron-fisted rule.

A dwindling group of insurgents are still fighting the authorities in Chechnya and across the volatile North Caucasus and sporadically launch eye-catching attacks.

Fourteen security officers were killed when armed militants stormed several buildings in Grozny on the day of President Vladimir Putin's state of the nation address in December 2014.

Rights activists and the opposition accuse Kadyrov of running Chechnya as his personal fiefdom, with kidnapping and torture widespread and little oversight from Moscow.

The Russian North Caucasus is one of the major sources of foreign jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq.

The FSB security service last month said it had killed a regional "emir" of the Islamic State group in a raid.</s>Police shot dead eight militants in Chechnya in southern Russia around midnight on Saturday after the men, travelling in two cars, opened fire when asked to stop at a checkpoint, the Interfax news agency reported on Sunday.

Moscow has fought two wars with separatists in Chechnya since the 1991 Soviet collapse and still faces a low-level insurgency in the mainly Muslim region in Russia's volatile North Caucasus area.

Citing the Chechen Interior Ministry, Interfax said the militants had opened fire with automatic weapons and thrown grenades at police officers who tried to stop them.

The agency quoted a law enforcement source as saying the gang had planned to carry out a series of attacks in Chechnya, which is ruled with an iron fist by Ramzan Kadyrov, the Moscow-backed president.

The armed group was led by Ali Demilkhanov, who was on a federal wanted list, Interfax reported. It said authorities had received advance intelligence about the militants and had deployed 200 men to try to intercept them.

Four policemen were injured in the shootings, Interfax reported.</s>MOSCOW (Sputnik) — At least two law enforcement officers and three militants have been killed during the police operation in the city of Shali located in Russia's Chechen Republic, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said Monday.



 "[The militants] opened fire and threw a grenade after the proposal to show their documents… Due to the received wounds… Sgt. 1st Class Ali Muslimkhanov and a serviceman of the Patrol-Guard Service of the Police… Islam Yakhadzhiev died. Also two local residents were injured. The immediately taken actions allowed to kill three militants," Kadyrov said.



 He added that the group was controlled from the Syrian territory by a recruiter of the Islamic State jihadist group, outlawed in Russia.
At least two police officers and three suspected militants are killed during a gunfight in Shali, Chechnya.