Militants in the North Caucasus region have increased attacks in areas neighboring Chechnya, where government forces have been fighting separatist rebels for more than a decade, a top Russian security official said on Friday.

"Terrorists have shifted the stress to the republics neighboring Chechnya," Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev, who is also chairman of the National Counterterrorist Committee, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

"In the first seven months of this year, 18 acts of terrorism were staged in Ingushetia and 11 in North Ossetia, which is almost twice as many as over the same period last year," Patrushev said.

He said the elimination of some rebel leaders helped to significantly reduce attacks in Chechnya.

Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, who was behind a series of deadly terrorist attacks, including the 2004 Beslan school siege, was killed in July in Ingushetia. Another rebel leader, Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, was killed by federal forces in June.

But Russian officials have warned the fighting against separatist rebels in Chechnya is not yet over.

Patrushev said over 5,000 crimes related to illicit arms trade were perpetrated in southern Russia in seven months. "People possess thousands and thousands of units of firearms and ammunition," he said.

Source: Xinhua