Russia kills 2 suspected militants in Dagestan, North Caucasus
Russian troops look at a destroyed house located in the turbulent Dagestan region of North Caucasus. On Thursday night, prominent journalist Khadzhimurad Kamalov was shot dead while he was leaving from work.
Russian security officers on Wednesday killed two suspected militants in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, near the ancestral homeland of two brothers believed responsible for last week's deadly bombings in Boston.
Russia's National Anti-Terrorist Committee said Wednesday's anti-militant operation in Sogratl saw security forces kill two believed insurgents, according to Reuters.
The officers first asked the men to surrender but they opened fire in response, according to France's 20 Minutes, citing a Russian committee statement.
Reuters said the killings took place in the village of Sogratl, about 60 miles from the regional capital where a team of US investigators have been busy questioning the relatives of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the men believed responsible.
The bombings in Boston killed three people and injured over 200 more. The tragedy shined an international spotlight on the Islamic insurgency gripping the volatile North Caucasus region, a movement Moscow has not been able to quell.
More from GlobalPost: Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Dagestan mystery
Russian security officials are cooperating with US investigators in the Tsarnaev probe, said ABC News.
US investigators have been in Makhachkala this week questioning the Tsarnaev family and following up on Tsarnaev's trip to Dagestan, and possibly Chechnya, last year. The younger Tsarnaev, 19-year-old Dzhokhar, is accused of plotting the attacks with his older brother and is currently in US custody.
Russia fought two separatist wars with nearby Chechnya in the 1990s.