On the night of September 4 , as the federal forces were wiping out the last bastions of resistance in the Kadar region , a car bomb destroyed a military housing building in the Dagestani town of Buynaksk , killing 64 people , the first in a wave of Russian apartment bombings . On the morning of September 5 , Chechen rebels launched a second invasion into the lowland Novolakskoye region of Dagestan , this time with a larger force . The rebels came within a mere five kilometers of the major city of Khasavyurt . The second invasion at the height of the hostilities in the Karamakhi zone on September 5 came as an unpleasant surprise to Moscow and Makhachkala . According to Basayev , the purpose of the second invasion was to distract federal forces attacking Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi . Intensive fighting continued until September 12 , when federal forces supported by local volunteers finally forced the Islamists back to Chechnya , even though sporadic armed clashes continued for some time
Russian apartment bombings
Russian apartment bombings
War of Dagestan