4 killed, more than 10 wounded by militants in Russia's restive southern province

NAZRAN, Russia — Several attacks by militants across Russia's restive North Caucasus on Friday killed at least four people, including a police officer and a local administrator, officials said.
In the province of Ingushetia west of Chechnya, unidentified assailants shot and killed a sales clerk at a grocery store in the village of Sagapshi in the province. When a group of police officers and local officials arrived at the scene, they were hit by an explosion and more than 10 were wounded, regional police spokeswoman Madina Khadziyeva said.
Islamic rebels in Russia's North Caucasus region have widely employed such tactics, targeting officials who arrive to investigate an attack with a second explosion.
In a separate attack in the Caspian Sea province of Dagestan east of Chechnya, an unidentified gunman killed a local administrator in the village of Magaramkent. His predecessor was killed last fall, said Nizami Radzhabov, a spokesman for the regional branch of Russia's top investigative body.
And in the village of Novye Tarki near Dagestan's provincial capital, Makhachkala, an unidentified attacker opened fire at crowd of people leaving a local mosque, killing one and wounding another person, Radzhabov said.
The mostly Muslim provinces in Russia's North Caucasus have been destabilized by regular attacks by Islamic militancy. Rights groups said endemic poverty, broad unemployment and police abuses against suspects have contributed to swelling the ranks of rebels.