Suspected armed militants simultaneously attacked several strategic points in Russia's North Caucasus region of Kabardino-Balkaria on Friday, killing no one, news agencies reported. Using a grenade launcher, rebels took aim at the regional headquarters of the federal security services, the FSB, set off an explosion at a hotel and opened fire on two police checkpoints in the provincial capital Nalchik, state-run Itar-TASS said, citing a law enforcement source.
Interfax news agency said four traffic police points had also been fired upon. The attacks are the latest blow to Kremlin efforts to contain a swelling Islamist insurgency in its mainly Muslim North Caucasus, a decade after federal forces threw separatists out of power in the second separatist war in Chechnya. The attacks started at 8 pm local time (1700 GMT), Itar-TASS said, adding that up to 12 militants had been injured when law enforcement officers fought against them.