MAKHACHKALA, Russia — Russian security forces in Dagestan killed two men in a counterterrorism operation on Sunday; officials said one of the men was a suspect in a series of bomb attacks on local police convoys.

In a statement, the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that security forces stormed the home of two men believed to be members of a criminal gang based outside of the city of Kizilyurt after the men opened fire on the police with automatic weapons, the Interfax news service reported.

The police identified one of the men as Shakhrudin Askhabov, who they said was behind a series of deadly attacks against police cars and local stores last fall who was known as “the bomber.”

Russian antiterrorism forces continue to clamp down aggressively on rebel groups in Dagestan, even as American and Russian officials have been searching for any ties between local terrorist groups and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older of the two brothers accused of the bomb attack at the Boston Marathon this month that killed three and injured more than 260.