Story highlights Rustam Magomedovich Aselderov pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014, Russia says

He was wanted in connection with the 2013 terrorist attacks in Volgograd

(CNN) The leader of a North Caucasus ISIS branch was killed in a special operation conducted by Russian Federal Security Service forces in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior, the security service said in a statement Sunday.

Rustam Magomedovich Aselderov, known as Abu Muhammad, and four militants close to him were killed in an exchange of fire with government forces Saturday near Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, the statement from the FSB said.

Security forces surrounded a residence where the militants were hiding. During negotiations to surrender, the militants fired automatic weapons and government forces fired back.

Officials seized automatic weapons, large quantities of ammunition and explosives from the site, the FSB said.

Aselderov pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014 before becoming the leader of the so-called "Vilayat Caucasus" in 2015, according to the FSB.

Read More</s>Russia's FSB security service says it has killed a leader of the Islamic State (IS) militant group during a raid in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Daghestan.

In a statement issued on December 4, the FSB said it had killed Rustam Aselderov and "four of his close associates" during a raid on a private house near Daghestan’s capital city of Makhachkala.

The statement said authorities found "automatic weapons and a large amount of ammunition and explosives" at the house during the December 3 raid.

Aselderov, who used the name Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Qadari, was named by the IS as the so-called "emir" of what the militants have declared as a new Caucasus province.

But he had been known to Russian security officials as an active member of terrorist groups in Daghestan since 2012.

Aselderov pledged allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in December 2014.

The FSB said Aselderov organized two bomb attacks in the southern Russian city of Volgograd that killed 34 people in 2013 when he was fighting as the leader of the so-called Caucasus Emirate extremist group.

Those attacks included an attack on Volgograd’s train station by a female suicide bomber on December 29, 2013, that killed 18 people and another suicide bombing that killed 16 people on a Volgograd trolley bus the following day.

The FSB has linked Aselderov to two car blasts on the Astrakhan-Makhachkala highway in May 2012 that killed 14 people and injured more than 120.

The FSB also accused Aselderov of trying to organize a foiled attack by two female suicide bombers that was meant to take place on Moscow's Red Square on New Year's Eve in 2010.

Washington named Aselderov as a "foreign terrorist fighter" in 2015 and imposed sanctions against him.

In October, Russia announced that it was offering a 5 million ruble reward -- about $78,000 -- for information that would help authorities locate Aselderov.

It was not immediate clear whether an informant had provided information to Russian security officials about Aselderov’s whereabouts in exchange for the reward money.

With reporting by AFP and TASS</s>The leader of a North Caucasus ISIS branch was killed in a special operation conducted by Russian Federal Security Service forces in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior, the security service said in a statement Sunday.

Rustam Magomedovich Aselderov, known as Abu Muhammad, and four militants close to him were killed in an exchange of fire with government forces Saturday near Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, the statement from the FSB said.

Security forces surrounded a residence where the militants were hiding. During negotiations to surrender, the militants fired automatic weapons and government forces fired back.

Officials seized automatic weapons, large quantities of ammunition and explosives from the site, the FSB said.

Aselderov pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014 before becoming the leader of the so-called "Vilayat Caucasus" in 2015, according to the FSB.

The US State Department designated Aselderov a foreign terrorist fighter in September 2015. Aselderov managed criminal activity and organized terrorist attacks, including suicide bombings, in the North Caucasus region and central Russia. He was wanted in connection with the 2013 terrorist attacks in the city of Volgograd , where suspected suicide bombers detonated explosives at a rail station and a trolley bus, killing more than 30 people. Russian citizens, mostly Chechens or Dagestanis from the largely Muslim North Caucasus region, comprise the largest group of ISIS fighters from a non-Muslim majority country , and they have played key roles in the group, according to CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen and David Sterman, an international security analyst with the New America think tank. CNN has reached out to the Pentagon for comment on the Russian operation.</s>MAKHACHKALA, Russia -- A warlord suspected to be behind multiple attacks in the North Caucasus and four of his accomplices have been killed in a police operation in Dagestan, local police said Sunday.

The five were killed late Saturday on the outskirts of the regional capital, Makhachkala, in a gunbattle with security forces, police spokeswoman Fatina Ubaydatova said.

Russian state television showed special and armored vehicles taking up positions to surround a two-story house nestled at the foot of mountains that flank Makhachkala to the west.

The regional office of the Russian Investigative Committee identified one of the five as 35-year old Rustam Aselderov, who was wanted for his suspected role in several attacks, including a double bombing in 2013 on a bus and at a train station in southern Russia that killed a total of 34 people.

Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim province on the western shore of the Caspian Sea, has become the epicenter of an Islamic insurgency following two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya. Despite government efforts to clamp down on the insurgency, shootouts and bombings are routine.

Russian security agency FSB said in a statement on Sunday that Aselderov, although operating in Dagestan, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014. The FSB posted a long list of suicide attacks in Dagestan and bombings elsewhere that Aselderov was suspected to have masterminded including a foiled suicide attack by two women on Red Square in Moscow on New Year's Eve in 2010.
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