4 Russian Troops, 5 Islamist Rebels Killed in Dagestan

Four Russian servicemen and five Islamist rebels were killed Friday in a clash in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, one of the deadliest outbreaks of violence there in months, officials said.

"The active phase of the battle is over," a local security official told the Interfax news agency, adding that three Russian servicemen had also been injured in the fighting.

Russia has been keen to contain violence along its restless southern periphery since concluding the second of two post-Soviet wars in Dagestan's neighbor Chechnya a decade ago.

But attacks continue throughout the region, with gunmen cutting the throat of a Russian serviceman in a rare night time attack on a grammar school in the nearby region of Kabardino-Balkaria on Thursday.