Kazakh security forces killed five suspected militants on Friday linked to deadly attacks this week on a national guard base and several firearms shops in the city of Aktobe, the National Security Committee (KNB) said, Reuters reported.
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In a statement, the National Security Committee (KNB) said a special forces unit on June 10 stormed an apartment and killed four “terrorists”.
Another man was shot dead on the street after opening fire, the KNB said.
Six people, including two Kazakh soldiers, one shop assistant and three attackers, were killed and 11 were wounded in June 5 multiple shootings in the city of Aktobe in the west of Kazakhstan. Police and security forces have launched a sweeping hunt for those involved. Terrorist attacks in Aktobe (formerly Aktyubinsk) in western Kazakhstan have “emphasized the importance of stepping up worldwide efforts to eradicate terrorism and extremism” and “actively fighting attempts to distort religion and use it for criminal purposes”, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Erlan Idrissov said on Friday.
Friday’s clashes bring to 25 the number of people who have died in Sunday’s attacks and the subsequent manhunt.
Kazakhstan’s President, Nursultan Nazarbayev, said the attackers had received instructions from overseas but did not specify any foreign country or group.
He vowed to use the toughest measures to “suppress extremists and terrorists”.
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It was the site of Kazakhstan’s first bombing in 2011, when a local man set off an explosive device inside the headquarters of the state security service.
