MOSCOW: Two separate attacks left three Russian soldiers and a village official dead on Friday in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, neighbouring Chechnya, the Interfax news agency reported.

In the first incident, unknown gunmen opened fire on soldiers belonging to a motorcycle unit in Buynaksk, a town of 60,000 at the foothills of the Greater Caucasus mountains, a local garrison spokesman said.

Less than two hours later, the chief administrator in the village of Cherniayevka, in the Kizlyar district, was shot and killed near his house, an official of Dagestan`s interior ministry said, Interfax reported.

The authorities have been battling a Muslim insurgency in the Caucasus, where Moscow fought two wars against Chechen separatists in the 1990s and militants have long pledged to destroy key infrastructure sites.

BDST: 1026 HRS, July 24, 2010