Unidentified gunmen targeted a car carrying Russian counterterrorism officers, killing three.
The incident happened on Friday in Magas, the capital city of the Republic of Ingushetia in Russia’s North Caucasus.
The shooting comes in the wake of a blood feud declared by Chechnya’s leader Ramzan Kadyrov against politicians from Dagestan and Ingushetia and have sparked fears of growing instability and bloodshed.
The gunmen were allegedly aiming to kill Adam Khamkhoyev, the deputy head of Putin’s Centre ‘E’ counterterrorism task force in Ingushetia.
Khamkhoyev survived the attempted assassination, but his three colleagues did not.
This latest attempt is already the fifth on his life, according to the Baza Telegram channel.
Surveillance cameras caught the extraordinary moment of the assassination attempt.
A gunman approaches the parked car and fires at the vehicle as he circles it.
The assailant then runs off, before a few moments later another person approaches and again fires into the car.
The gunmen successfully fled the scene, later leaving their burned out vehicle in the settlement of Maysky in North Ossetia.
The Centre for Combating Extremism is involved in the identification and detention of persons who are considered extremists by the Russian authorities.
In the northern Caucasus their activities are much broader and include monitoring radical Muslim movements.
Tensions in the regions are extremely high, after Chechnya’s brutal leader Ramzan Kadyrov declared a blood feud on three politicians – two from Dagestan and one from Ingushetia.
Anton Gerashchenko, a former adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, claimed Russian security officials are worried it could lead to war between Dagestan and Chechnya.
Relations between the two republics are already strained over a long standing land dispute that could reach a climax later this year.
Ethnic Chechens in Dagestan, of whom there are around 16,000, and Kadyrov have stepped up demands that Makhachkala lives up to its promises to restore a Chechen district in the country to them by the end of 2024.
However, doing so would likely require the Dagestani authorities to expel the Avars and the Laks, who moved there after Stalin deported the Chechens in 1944.
Officials in Dagestan believe such action will destabilise their country, prompt Grozny to annex the restored Chechen region, and reopen other border disputes.
