IS leader 'killed' by Russian security services in North Caucasus

Russia claims to have killed the leader of the branch of Islamic State that operates in the North Caucasus.

Rustam Aselderov, the so-called 'emir' of the group in the region, was among a group of "neutralised bandits", according to the country's security service, the FSB.

Aselderov was cornered in a private house with his fighters in a joint operation between the FSB and Russia's interior ministry.

The FSB claimed security personnel found a cache of "automatic weapons and a large amount of ammunition and explosives" at the property in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

Russia blames the 35-year-old for attacks on the Russian city of Volgograd in 2013 that left 34 dead.

One of the attacks, a blast that destroyed a bus and killed 10 people, happened about a month before the start of the Sochi winter Olympics.

At the time, he was fighting for a different militant group.

He was also linked to two car bomb attacks in Dagestan in 2012 that killed 14 and injured at least 120.

The FSB claimed he had organised an unsuccessful suicide bombing, which involved two women, in Moscow's Red Square on New Year's Eve in 2010.

Aselderov switched his allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi in December 2014.

Analysts said many of those fighting with IS in places like Syria and Iraq come from the North Caucasus.

It is not known whether Aselderov has been a recruiter for the group.

The US had also declared Aselderov a "foreign terrorist fighter" after IS appointed him leader of the region.

Russia offered a 5 million ruble (£61,100) reward in October for information on his whereabouts.