Russian special forces troops have killed four militants in a shoot-out at a flat in St. Petersburg in a counter-terrorism operation targeting gang leaders from Russia's volatile North Caucasus region.
Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) said on Wednesday that three of the four men killed had been senior figures in the criminal underworld responsible for a string of terror attacks and attempted assassinations of police officers.
"Special forces from Russia's FSB security service surrounded the bandits in a flat they were hiding in," the NAC said in a statement.
"When asked to lay down their weapons and give up, they opened fire."
Automatic weapons, ammunition, and several improvised explosive devices had been found in the flat, it said.
In a separate incident in the Moscow region, police said two men who had attacked a roadside police sentry point had been killed.
The attackers were originally from Central Asia and had carried out the attack wielding axes, it said.
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