MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian troops killed at least 10 “rebels” in the North Caucasus in the past two days in two operations in the mainly Muslim region, Russian media said on Saturday.

Troops killed five fighters holed up in a block of flats in the restive region of Kabardino-Balkaria and five other rebels were killed in an operation that began two days ago in the neighboring Caspian Sea province of Dagestan, the reports said.
ITAR-TASS news agency said a special police forces officer was killed in the Dagestan clash and, elsewhere in the province, a regional election official was fatally wounded by intruders at his home overnight.
The state-run news agency RIA and the television channel Rossiya 24 said the fighters in Kabardino-Balkaria, besieged overnight in a five-storey residential building in the capital Nalchik, were suspected of carrying out attacks on police.
The region of Kabardino-Balkaria has been largely untouched in recent years by the spreading violence in the North Caucasus but there has been an increase in clashes with police in the past few weeks.