Official: Militants shoot dead policeman in Dagestan after string of suicide bombings

Official: Militants kill policeman in Dagestan

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia — A Russian official in the restive southern province of Dagestan says three militants opened fire on police officers in a drive-by shooting, killing one and injuring another.

Dagestan — part of Russia’s predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region — has been the epicenter of a week of violence. A 17-year-old Dagestani girl has been named as one of the two suicide bombers to hit the Moscow subway, killing 40 people Monday and injuring 90.

Two other suicide bombers struck Wednesday near Dagestan’s border with Chechnya, killing 12 people.

Dagestan’s Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gadzhiyev told The Associated Press that Saturday’s shooting occurred near the village of Chontaul, 40 miles (70 kilometers) northwest of the provincial capital of Makhachkala.

Russian authorities are fighting an active Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus.