A top traffic police official was killed...

The incident took place at 8.00 p.m. Moscow time (17.00 GMT) on the Hasavurt-Novolakskoye highway, the spokesman said.

Yusup Gairbekov, the acting traffic police chief of Dagestan"s Novolaksky district, died at the scene, he said.

Attacks on police and authorities blamed on Islamist militants and criminal groups have been a frequent occurrence in Dagestan, one of Russia"s poorest regions.

On Monday, two police officers were shot dead in their car in Dagestan"s Khasavyurt district, near the administrative border with Chechnya, which saw two separatist wars with federal troops in the late 1990s-early 2000s.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev highlighted security and economic problems in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus late last year and ordered measures to end militant violence, clan rivalries, and pervasive corruption in the region.

MAKHACHKALA, February 24 (RIA Novosti)