Two Russian police killed in Dagestan - reports

MOSCOW, May 15 (Reuters) - Two police officers were killed while patrolling a small village in central Dagestan on Thursday, Russian news agencies reported.

The Interfax news agency quoted Dagestan's interior ministry as saying a vehicle with three officers was shot at during a routine patrol of the village Gubden. Two were killed and one was wounded.

In October last year attackers burned down the house of Gubden's police chief about 10 days after unknown gunmen opened fire on Russian riot police in the village, wounding two, Interfax reported at the time.

In September 2007 the Islamic judge of a local mosque in Gubden was killed before morning prayers, with an armed underground Dagestani Islamist group claiming responsibility, according to the Chechnya Weekly, a U.S. watchdog newsletter.

Russian forces have fought two wars in Chechnya since 1994, killing thousands of people and scarring the north Caucasus. The violence has spilled over into neighbouring Dagestan and Ingushetia, two of Russia's poorest regions. (Reporting by Chris Baldwin, editing by Elizabeth Piper)