Security forces in Azerbaijan have killed four alleged extremists the government suspects were plotting terror attacks, the Caspian Sea country’s State Security Service says.

The service said the suspects were killed in a shoot-out on January 31 during a search operation that was launched after they opened fire at security forces.

A fifth alleged member of the group was taken into custody.

According to the security service, the suspects were connected to an unspecified religious extremist group abroad and planed a series of terrorist attacks on Azerbaijan's territory.

It did not say where the shoot-out took place.

It was impossible to verify the statement by the authorities in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic.

Based on reporting by trend.az and Interfax </s> Azerbaijani security forces said Wednesday they had killed four alleged "Daesh terrorists" suspected of plotting attacks in the predominantly Muslim nation.

The special operation on Tuesday was carried out by the State Security Service (SSS) and targeted four Azerbaijani citizens "suspected of planning serious crimes" motivated by "religious extremism," the security agency said in a statement.

They had "pledged allegiance to a terrorist organisation active abroad and were planning terrorist acts across the country," it said, without giving details.

"The group offered armed resistance using automatic rifles and guns," the statement added.

Security services in December killed a suspected Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist who planned to carry out a suicide bombing in the capital Baku's biggest shopping mall.

In February 2016, Azerbaijan arrested eight men for allegedly fighting alongside the Daesh terrorist group in Syria and Iraq.

Local media had previously reported numerous cases of nationals from the officially secular ex-Soviet state fighting alongside Daesh in both the countries. </s> BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan’s security forces killed four members of a group that had been planning to carry out terror acts in the country, the state security service said on Wednesday.

Ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, a majority Muslim country with a population of about 10 million, is a major energy producer in the Caspian Sea region.

The group, which was eliminated during a special operation, was “loyal to a number of terrorist organizations operating in foreign countries and had been planning to carry out terrorist acts in Azerbaijan,” the security service said in a statement.

One suspect was arrested. </s> MOSCOW — Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee says nine insurgents in the Caucasus region who allegedly were planning acts of terrorism during public holidays in May have been killed by police.

The committee said officers in the city of Derbent found two separate groups of suspects and ordered them to surrender. It says the suspects refused and died in subsequent gunfire on Saturday.

Derbent is in Dagestan, a Caucasus region where police have clashed for years with fighters in an insurgency that spread from neighbouring Chechnya. Russian troops have fought two full-scale wars in Chechnya during the past quarter-century.

Also Saturday, the Federal Security Service said its officers killed a suspected Islamic State group supporter who allegedly planned terrorist acts in the Caucasus city of Stavropol. </s> MOSCOW: Nine people suspected of plotting an attack in Russia were killed in a shootout with security forces in Dagestan, the country's National Anti-Terror Committee has said.

The "anti-terrorist" operation was launched Saturday in Derbent, Dagestan, after police received a tip off over a group hiding in the city, who allegedly planned to commit an "attack" on May 1, traditionally a holiday in Russia, according to a statement from committee.

"Nine outlaw have been neutralised following brief exchanges of fire" with law enforcement, it said.

A Special Forces officer was wounded during the operation.

Dagestan, which lies immediately east of Chechnya, has seen a number of attacks in recent years, with several assaults against police claimed by the so-called Islamic State group. </s> Russian authorities say they have detained seven people suspected of financially supporting two extremist organizations in the Middle East.

Russia's Investigative Committee said on December 13 that the suspects had been apprehended in and around the Moscow region and the three North Caucasus regions of Chechnya, Daghestan, and Ingushetia.

They were suspected of sending at least 38 million rubles ($570,000) to militants of the Islamic State (IS) group and the Al-Nusra Front – Al-Qaeda’s Syrian affiliate until 2016 -- since 2010.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) said the seven suspects were detained following a joint operation by the FSB, the Investigative Committee, and the National Guard.

Also on December 13, authorities in Ingushetia said that two suspected terrorists were killed overnight after one of them threw a grenade at police in the city of Nazran.

Two officers were wounded in the attack, officials said.

Violence is common in the North Caucasus, where Islamic militants have been mounting frequent attacks against police, public officials, and moderate Muslims.

In June 2015, Islamic militants in the North Caucasus announced in an Internet video post that they had pledged allegiance to the IS.

Russia estimates some 2,000 citizens, mostly from the North Caucasus, have fought alongside IS in Syria.

Organized crime, business turf wars, political disputes, and clan rivalry also contribute to the bloodshed in the region.

With reporting by TASS and Interfax </s> Russian authorities say security forces have killed three suspected militants in the North Caucasus province of Daghestan.

The Interior Ministry's branch in Daghestan said its forces surrounded a house in the town of Khasavyurt where the suspects were hiding on January 29.

Spokesman Ruslan Ibragimgadzhiev said the three alleged militants refused to surrender and died during a firefight.

There were no casualties reported among security forces or local residents.

Daghestan has become the epicenter of violence for militants seeking to establish an Islamic state in the North Caucasus.

Some militants in the province and elsewhere in the North Caucasus have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Based on reporting by AP, TASS, and Interfax </s> Russia says nine insurgents in the volatile Daghestan region who allegedly were planning acts of terrorism during public holidays in May have been killed by police.

Russia's Counterterrorism Committee said on its website on April 21 that it had received information that militants who planned to carry out an attack early next month were hiding in Derbent, the second-biggest city of the Muslim-majority republic of Daghestan in the south of the country.

The committee said officers found two separate groups of suspects in Derbent and ordered them to surrender. It says the suspects refused and died in subsequent gunfire on April 21.

Daghestan has seen a number of attacks in recent years, with several assaults against police claimed by the so-called Islamic State group.

Also on April 21, Russia's Federal Security Service said its officers killed a suspected Islamic State group supporter who allegedly planned terrorist acts in the neighboring Stavropol region.

Based on reporting by Reuters, AP and AFP </s> Moscow - Russian authorities say six suspected militants and six soldiers were killed during a firefight in the volatile North Caucasus region.

The National Anti-terrorism Committee said in a statement that armed militants, including two with suicide belts, had tried to break into a National Guard base in Chechnya.

The National Guard, a powerful new security agency created by President Vladimir Putin last year, said the attack took place in heavy fog.

The Amaq news agency, which is linked to the Islamic State group, said "six soldiers of the caliphate" were killed in the attack.

There was no independent confirmation of ISIS involvement.

The Kremlin has relied on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov to stabilise the situation in the mainly Muslim region in the wake of two bloody separatist wars that followed the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.
Four alleged extremists planning terror attacks in Azerbaijan are killed in a shootout with the country's security forces; one suspect is arrested. The State Security Service says the group was connected to an unspecified religious extremist group abroad.