MOSCOW, March 10 (UPI) -- A shootout between Russian special forces and militants left three militants dead and two government officers injured, officials said.
The incident happened Thursday in the village of Shalushka, near a ski resort in the southern Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, where three people were killed in a terrorist attack last month, RIA Novosti reported.
Authorities have increased security in the area since militants attacked a vehicle carrying five people Feb. 18. The region was considered one of the calmer republics in the predominately Muslim North Caucasus.
The day after that attack a bomb was detonated at the ski resort, causing 40 cable cars to fall to the ground. No one was injured.
Russian federal troops fought two wars against Islamist separatists in neighboring Chechnya in the 1990s and early 2000s, RIA Novosti said.
