Eldar Magatov was shot dead. She was a Russian Muslim terrorist suspect threatening to attack the Sochi Olympics when they start in February. One Muslim down, several more to go.
Police have killed a senior Islamist militant in a shootout in Russia’s North Caucasus before the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the national anti-terror committee has said.
The operation against Eldar Magatov, a suspect in numerous attacks on Russian targets, at a house where he had taken refuge in the Dagestan region was part of an intensifying security clampdown as the Games approach.
President Vladimir Putin has staked his political reputation on organising a successful Olympics and tightened security nationwide after insurgents who hope to create an Islamist state in the North Caucasus threatened to attack the Games.
Magatov led an insurgent group in the Babyurt district of Dagestan, the committee said. Dagestan has become the focal point of the insurgency, which is rooted in two separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya.