Shootout in Shpakovsky District becomes first incident in Stavropol Territory in 2019

The today's shootout with two suspected militants killed in the Shpakovsky District was the first armed incident in the Stavropol Territory since early 2019.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that tonight, the law enforcement bodies received the information about two armed men near the farm yard of Balki in the Shpakovsky District. Both suspects were killed in the exchange of fire with law enforcers, no one else was injured, the National Antiterrorist Committee (NAC) reports. According to the NAC, the killed suspects were natives of the Volgograd Region, who joined the "Islamic State" (IS), a terrorist organization banned in Russia by the court, and came to the Stavropol Territory to organize a terror act.

According to the calculations run by the "Caucasian Knot" and based on its own materials and information from other open sources, the shootout became the first armed incident between law enforcers and militants in the Stavropol Territory in 2019. The recent armed incident took place on December 19, 2018. Then, during a special operation conducted in the regional centre, two men were killed, who, according to the FSB's version, rendered resistance during an attempt to detain them. According to the authorities, the killed suspects were also members of the IS* and came to the Stavropol Territory from another region to plot a terror act.

In 2018, in the Stavropol Territory, four armed incidents were registered, and eight persons fell victim to them, including six killed suspected militants and two wounded law enforcers. The number of victims to the armed conflict exceeded by one third the number for 2017, when six victims were registered. Meanwhile, in 2017, in the Stavropol Territory, three armed incidents were registered. Find these data, as well as the information about the armed confrontation in Northern Caucasus, on the "Caucasian Knot" in the Section "Northern Caucasus: Statistics of Victims".

* "Islamic State" (IS, earlier ISIL) is recognized as a terrorist organization and is banned in Russia by the court

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 14, 2019 at 04:47 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.