MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) — Russian security forces have killed three suspected militants during a firefight in a volatile province of Russia's North Caucasus. A spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry's branch in the province of Dagestan says that its forces surrounded a house in the town of Khasavyurt where the suspects were hiding on Sunday. Spokesman Ruslan Ibragimgadzhiev said the three alleged militants refused to surrender and died during a firefight. Mainly Muslim Dagestan is the principal breeding ground for Islamic militants in Russia and there are regular attacks on police and officials. Russia fought two bloody separatist wars in the neighboring province of Chechnya after the fall of the Soviet Union. Daghestan has become the epicenter of violence for militants seeking to establish an Islamic state in the North Caucasus.
At least three suspected militants are killed by Russian security forces during a firefight in Khasavyurt, Dagestan.