A suicide bomber set off a car-bomb blast that killed at least two police officers and injured seven others today in Russia's North Caucasus, a Dagestan province police spokesman said.
The bomber detonated the explosives after police stopped his car at a checkpoint about 100km north of Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, the spokesman said.
Dagestan borders Chechnya in the North Caucasus, where Russia is facing a persistent Islamist insurgency, and the predominantly Muslim province is plagued by frequent attacks targeting law enforcement and government officials.
The blast came a month after twin bombings blamed on female suicide attackers from Dagestan killed 40 people on Moscow's metro on March 29th, raising fears of a new wave of attacks in Russia's heartland by militants based in the Caucasus.
The Moscow bombings were followed by several deadly attacks in the North Caucasus, including two suicide blasts that killed 12 people, mostly police, in Dagestan on March 31st.
The attacks have brought new Kremlin pledges to neutralise insurgents in the North Caucasus, hit by persistent violence since two devastating post-Soviet wars pitting government forces against separatist rebels in Chechnya.
Reuters