MOSCOW, December 24 (RIA Novosti) – Over 260 militants have been killed in Russia’s restive North Caucasus region over the last year, the national anti-terrorism committee said Tuesday.
The committee said that among the people killed were 42 insurgent leaders, including the organizers of the suicide bus bombing in Russia’s southern city Volgograd in October that killed six people and wounded dozens more. 
Police have also seized more than 320 homemade bombs over the course of 70 anti-terrorist operations in the region, the committee said.
“Seventy-eight terrorist crimes were prevented, including 12 terrorist attacks,” it said.
Attacks against law enforcement and security personnel are frequent in the North Caucasus, where an Islamist insurgency continues despite the efforts of federal forces to stamp it out.