Police defuse bomb equivalent to 3 kg of TNT in Dagestan

Police have defused a roadside bomb equivalent to 3 kg of TNT in the Republic of Dagestan in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus region, the republican interior ministry said on Sunday. During a search operation on Saturday, the police found an improvised explosive device on the Sergokala-Urakhi road in central Dagestan. The bomb was destroyed on the spot, the ministry said. Also on Saturday, the police found and destroyed two artillery shells in the Untsukulsky district in central Dagestan, the ministry said. More that a decade after the end of a federal war against separatists in Chechnya, militants continue to stage frequent attacks on security forces, police and civilians, in other regions in the area, including Dagestan. Volatile Dagestan, which neighbors Chechnya, saw around half of all militant attacks in Russia last year.