Lieutenant-Colonel Shapi Aligadzhiyev, the leader of the special task force police unit, was shot dead in the capital of Dagestan by two gunmen today. One of the gunmen is thought to have been injured and fled the scene; the other was killed by guards. Aligadzhiyev’s death is the latest in a slew of high-profile assassinations by Islamist insurgents in Russia’s North Caucasus this year.
