Kazakhstan: 5 militants of Jund al-Khilafah (Soldiers of the Caliphate) and 2 police killed in a firefight in Almaty
Five militants and two members of an elite police force were killed in operations in southern Kazakhstan, prosecutors said Sunday, amid concerns about rising Islamist unrest in the Central Asian state.
The clash took place during a special operation against suspected militants in a village just outside Kazakhstan`s largest city and former capital of Almaty, where prosecutors said they had been planning attacks.
The spokesman for general prosecutors Nurdaulet Suindikov said the militants hid in a house in the village of Boraldai but then they were surrounded by the security forces as residents were evacuated for their own safety.
“Two members of the special Arystan battalion of the national security committee were killed,” he said in the capital Astana.
“After refusing to give themselves up and providing armed resistance, five members of the terrorist group were killed, including their leader.”