4 militants killed in Russian province

Police in Russia's restive Ingushetia province say government forces have killed four suspected militants who were holed up in a house refusing to surrender.

Police in Russia's restive Ingushetia province say government forces have killed four suspected militants who were holed up in a house refusing to surrender.

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The provincial Interior Ministry said security forces surrounded a house in a village and returned fire when its occupants resisted arrest and fired at them.

The police description was similar to authorities' accounts of many clashes in southern Russia's violence-plagued Caucasus region. It could not immediately be verified.

The region is plagued by violence that has persisted since the 1990s separatist wars in Chechnya, next to Ingushetia. There has been an upsurge in attacks on law enforcement and government officials in Chechnya, Ingushetia and neighboring Digestion in recent months.