MAKHACHKALA, Dagestan –  A top official of the paramilitary police has been assassinated in Russia's violence-plagued Caucasus republic of Dagestan and another policeman was killed in clash with suspected militants in neighboring Chechnya.

Dagestan Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov says Shamil Murtuzaliyev, the deputy head of the OMON police division in the republic, was killed about midday Thursday by two men who opened fire on him as he sat in his car in the capital Makhachkala. OMON paramilitary officers are used as anti-terrorist and riot police.

In Chechnya, one policeman was killed and seven wounded in a clash with about 10 armed men in the mountainous Vedeno region where separatist rebels operate.

Insurgents and criminal bands operate in both republics.