200 militants killed in North Caucasus in 2012

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MOSCOW, July 6 (UPI) -- Russian authorities report roughly 200 militants in the Caucasus have been killed in the first half of 2012.

Sergei Chenchik, head of the Main Directorate of the Interior Ministry in the North Caucasian Federal District, reported the statistic, RIA Novosti said Thursday.

Chenchik noted that 1,200 operations since January resulted in 194 militants, including 25 leaders, killed, compared with 209 in 2011, while 104 police officers were also killed in the counterinsurgency operations.

According to Chenchik, 235 Caucasian militants were arrested and eight surrendered. Of the 160 civilians attacked by militants, 32 were killed, while in 2011, 102 were attacked.

Last month Andrei Przhezdomskii, an adviser to the head of the National Counter-Terrorism Committee, said the Russian Federation's battle with terrorism in the North Caucasus was succeeding.

Russia has been battling separatists in the northern Caucasus since the Soviet Union collapsed in December 1991, most notably in Chechnya but now Dagestan as well.