January 2005 Dagestan Raids

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January 15, 2005 sieges in Daghestan
Part of Second Chechen War
Date January 15, 2005 Location Makhachkala and Kaspiysk, Daghestan Result Russian tactical victory
Belligerents
Russia  Dagestan	Shariat Jamaat
Commanders and leaders
Arzulum Ilyasov †	Magomedzagir Akayev †
Strength
?	8
Casualties and losses
4 killed 1 wounded	6 killed 1 wounded and captured

January 15, 2005 sieges were two raids of the Russian security forces on a militant Islamist group's safehouses in Daghestan. At least four Russian commandos and six rebels died in the clashes, while one was captured. The group, called Shariat Jamaat, previously killed 29 members of the Daghestani department for fighting extremism and criminal terrorism, including its chief Akhberdilav Akilov.

In the first incident, the government forces surrounded a group of five rebel fighters in a two-story house on the outskirts of Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan. For 17 hours, the rebels battled Russian special forces supported by armoured vehicles and a helicopter, killing one of elite Alpha Group commandos and wounding another. In the end a tank belonging to the Russian Marines smashed the remains of the burned and gutted house. The authorities claimed that among the five bodies recovered from the ruins was the Jennet leader Rasul Makasharipov, but it turned out to be incorrect when Makasharipov resurfaced four days later.

In a separate clash this day, special police task force stormed another house in Dagestan's port of Kaspiysk to arrest a separate group of militants. Three SOBR officers were killed in the attempt, including group commander Colonel Arzulum Ilyasov. One rebel was killed (50-year-old commander Magomedzagir Akayev) and one wounded and captured, while the third one escaped (according to some reports two were captured).

• Dagestani officials avert major 'terror attacks’, ISN, 17 January 2005
• War breaks out in Russia's Dagestan, Pravda, 18.01.2005
• Battle Hits Dagestan Capital, IWPR, 19-Jan-05
• SECURITY FORCES BATTLE MILITANTS IN DAGESTAN, The Jamestown Foundation, January 19, 2005