An anti-terror official has been killed in a skirmish with militants in the restive southern Russian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria.

Khasan Bogatyryov, deputy head of the regional interior ministry's anti-extremism department, was killed Sunday during a military sweep in the town of Baksan.

Russian troops have been battling Islamist insurgents for more than a decade in the Caucasus including in the republic of Chechnya and nearby regions such as Kabardino-Balkaria.