7 attackers detained, four killed in anti-terrorist operation in Kazakhstan’s Aktoba
Seven people have been arrested in connection with the June 5 shooting attacks on two gun shops and a military unit in Aktobe, according to Director of the Department of State Language and Information of the Kazakh Ministry of Internal Affairs Almas Sadubayev.
As The Astana Times reports, four other suspected extremists were killed during the attacks.
Sadubayev also confirmed additional civilian casualties and that a bus station was seized in the attack.
“The criminals carried out an armed attack on the Pallada weapon shop, where they killed a shop assistant and a security guard, as well as inflicted gunshot wounds to three police officers who arrived at the scene in a patrol car. In another attack on the Pantera gun shop, killed one visitor and one person was shot. In the shootout with the police who arrived on the scene, three of the attackers were killed, one was arrested,” Sadubayev said, as quoted by the source.
He added that in order to attack the military unit of the National Guard, the attackers captured a city bus, “dropped off the driver and passengers and then [used the] bus to ram the gate. Upon entering the territory, they opened indiscriminate fire, killing three and wounding six servicemen.”
The new details mean there were six confirmed deaths so far among locals and the military, with the number of injured, earlier reported as 11, still yet to be determined, according to the source.
Earlier, Sadubayev said that the attackers are presumably members of radical non-traditional religious groups.