Rasul Temirbekov, spokesman for the Russian Investigate Committee, said police stormed a house in the town of Buinaksk today morning, killing the owner of the house and four men.
Investigators said that among the four killed was 50-year-old Bammatkhan Sheikov, a prominent warlord who was said to be competing to oversee all militant operations in Dagestan.
Sheikov was sentenced to three years in prison for insurgency in 2008 after he turned himself in and laid down arms.