MOSCOW, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 235 Interior Ministry police officers and troops died in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus in 2009, the ministry's deputy chief said Saturday.

    Another 686 employees of the ministry were injured during 2009,a year that saw a sharp increase in terrorist operations in the region, Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Yedelev said.

    "Over 700 murder attempts on law enforcement officers were made," he added.

    Yedelev also said that "2009 saw foreign funded terrorists operating in southern Russia."

    There were 544 terrorist crimes, among which 437 were carried out in the Chechen Republic, 44 in Dagestan, and 41 in Ingushetia, local media reported, citing statistics from the ministry.

    Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus republics, particularly Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia, have seen an upsurge in militant violence lately. On Jan. 6, five police were killed in a suicide bombing in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

    After the attack, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Federal Security Service to beef up security in the North Caucasus and demanded a systematic elimination of militants within the region.