Attacks on police, officials and troops have been reported almost daily in Ingushetia and neighbouring Dagestan that border Chechnya, which saw two separatist wars in the late 1990s-early 2000s.

Ingushetia's construction minister was gunned down in his office last Wednesday. The murder followed the killing of a Supreme Court judge and the attempted assassination of the republic's President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov in late June. Last month the Ingush forensic chief was also gunned down.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called the increased terrorist activity in the Caucasus 'an attempt to destabilise the situation in the region'.

--RIA Novosti

rd/jg