Kazakh President Blames Attacks on Radical Islamists

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev on Friday blamed radical Islamists for deadly shootings that left seven dead in the west of the oil-rich Central Asian state.

Seven people -- four civilians and three soldiers -- were killed after gunmen went on the rampage at gun shops and a military base in the city of Aktobe near the Russian border on Sunday.

"We already know that it was a terrorist attack by a group of followers of the non-traditional religious movement Salafism," Nazarbayev said in a televised meeting with the country's security council, referring to an ultra-conservative brand of Islam.

"While granting freedom of worship in the country, we also intend to deal a decisive blow to all those who, hiding behind religious slogans, upset the situation in the country."

Nazarbayev's comments came hours after security forces killed five more people suspected of perpetrating Sunday's attacks.

In total government troops claim to have killed 18 suspected attackers. Nazarbayev said "a few" of them were still in hiding and has vowed that all attackers would be strictly punished.

Police in Aktobe said Friday that they were still searching for three suspects.

Authorities had initially said that six people were killed in Sunday's attacks but later updated the casualty toll to seven after another civilian succumbed to injuries in the hospital.

Nazarbayev said Wednesday the attackers were part of a "radical pseudo-religious" group that had received instructions "from abroad."

Nazarbayev also suggested the attacks might be linked to political unrest that has swept the country in recent months and could be an attempt to spark a revolution.

Since independence, oil-rich Kazakhstan has largely avoided the chaos that has dogged other former Soviet nations in Central Asia.

But social unrest in the majority Muslim nation has grown as the economy reels from low oil prices and a crisis in neighboring Russia, a key ally.

Aktobe, a city of about 400,000, is located some 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Russian border in Kazakhstan's oil-producing west.

The city was the site of country's first ever suicide bombing in 2011 that targeted the local headquarters of the National Security Committee (KNB), but no others were killed in the attack.

Around 300 Kazakh citizens are believed to be fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State (IS) group and other radical organizations in Iraq and Syria.

IS has in the past released propaganda videos that feature a child soldier apparently from the country.