Special forces are carrying out an operation to detain the suspected militants involved in Sunday’s attacks on two gun shops and an army unit in Kazakhstan’s northwestern city of Aktobe, the head of the National Security Committee of Kazakhstan, Vladimir Zhumakanov, said at the meeting with the President Nursultan Nazarbaev.
"A total of 13 criminals were killed in an anti-terrorist operation and 14 others were wounded. Another 20 people were detained on suspicion of their involvement in the attacks. Search for 6 more suspects continues outside the Kazakh city of Aktobe. We know that they remain in the region," Tengrinews cited him as saying.
“This morning at around 8 am the gunfire was opened on security guards of kid’s summer camp in Aktobe. Shotgun fire was delivered from a white Lada car,” Zhumakanov stressed. The Kazakh Interior Ministry has not confirmed whether security personnel at the children’s camp were shot at.
“Information about gunfire at the kid’s camp has been looked into, but couldn’t be confirmed,” the Interior Ministry spokesman Almas Sabudaev said.
Tengrinews reported that the special operation was underway near a children’s educational center Akbobe, where "a group of troops" has arrived. "They are equipped with body armors and armed with assault rifles. The gates of the center are closed and there is no access to the territory," the agency said.
According to the chief doctor of the city hospital emergency care, Rakhimzhan Arystan, only 18 people were hospitalized after the attack in Aktobe. One terrorist and civilian have died from injuries they received.
"Sixteen people who have received various wounds remain in hospital, their life is not under threat," Arystan said.
The Kazakh Minister of Health and Social Development, Tamara Duysenova, said that there are four wounded in serious condition at the moment.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered to detain all the suspects. "We know that they are in the region, they have been identified, the citizens have been warned. There is a need to detain all the criminals and kill them if there is armed resistance. Everyone must be punished in the most severe way," TASS cited the president as saying.
On June 5, a group of "followers of radical, nontraditional religious movements" attacked two gun shops and an army unit of the National Guard in Aktobe. 8 people were killed in the attack, including 3 servicemen, 34 people were wounded.
