Muslim cleric, two officers killed after gun attacks in southern Russia

September 20, 2009

According to officials, a Muslim religious leader and two anti-terrorism officers were killed in the Ingushetia region of Russia on Sunday in two separate gun attacks.

Ingush Interior Ministry spokesman Madina Khadzhiyeva said that the officers were killed by gunfire while driving along a highway in the region at around noon on Sunday.

a spokesperson said.

The RIA news agency reports that searches are ongoing to apprehend the attackers.

Meanwhile, the Karachayevo-Cherkessiya Interior Ministry reported that Ismail Bostanov, a leading Muslim cleric, was was gunned down on the same day, in a separate attack.

The Ministry said it believes the attack was carried out by adherents of Wahhabism, a fundamentalist branch of Islam, a group whose influence Bostanov had attempted to reduce.