DHAKA: A security official was killed by unidentified gunmen in Russia’s Ingushetia republic, local police said on Tuesday, the latest violence in a region plagued by an Islamist insurgency and near the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has launched a huge security operation in regions surrounding the Black Sea resort of Sochi to stop any insurgent attacks on next year’s Winter Olympics, but the North Caucasus region suffers almost daily violence.

Ahmed Kotiyev, head of the regional Security Council which advises on security and defence matters, and his driver were shot dead by gunmen who sprayed their car with bullets on a highway 30 km north of the major city of Nazran.

The shooting follows a botched assassination attempt against Kotiyev, who helped militants abandon the insurgency, in June when assailants fired a grenade launcher on his house, reports The Jerusalem Post.

BDST: 1710 HRS, AUG 27, 2013
RoR/RK