MAKHACHKALA, Russia, Feb. 8 (UPI) -- Russian special forces Saturday killed five suspected Islamist militants in a raid Saturday in the province of Dagestan, police said.
The raid is the latest in a series of security crackdowns in the run-up to the Sochi Winter Olympics in the volatile Caucasus. Believed to be among the dead is Alexei Pashentsev, a recent Muslim convert who was suspected of leading a militant anti-government group, CNN said.
Four others were killed and one person surrendered and was taken into custody, Russian police said.
The raid took place in a house in the Dagestan capital, Makhachkala, and the militants were believed to have been linked to the Buynaksk terror group, which carried out two bombings in Volgograd that killed 34 people in December.
