Johannesburg (AP) — Police in South Africa on Wednesday said they had arrested 11 people, including many suspected of being illegal miners, and were seeking a potential connection to Sunday's shooting at a pub that killed 10 people.
In search for illegal miners in the area, police and Sibanye-Stillwater mine security stormed two houses in Westonaria, 46 kilometers (39 miles) outside Johannesburg. Nine citizens of Lesotho and one Mozambican, thought to be living in South Africa illegally, were among those arrested. Police said they were found with unlicensed firearms, including four handguns and an AK-47 rifle.
Maj. Gen. Fred Kekana, acting provincial commissioner of Gauteng, told reporters that police had found cartridges and live ammunition of the "same type” of firearms at the shooting scene in Bekkersdal. They were sent for testing to determine if they were used in the shooting.
Authorities also arrested a South African mine employee who faces charges related to harboring tenants living in the country illegally and potentially defeating the ends of justice. On Tuesday, the pub's owner was charged with fraud and operating an illegal liquor outlet.
Surrounded by abandoned mine shafts, townships west of Johannesburg like Bekkersdal are notorious for illicit mining operations, which have led to problems including gang violence and the proliferation of illegal firearms.
Sibanye-Stillwater operates several significant operations in the region.
In areas where the mining industry once thrived, illegal miners known as “zama-zamas” have continued to operate. The trade is believed to be predominantly controlled by migrants who illegally enter from Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.
South African police gather at the scene of a mass shooting where gunmen killed nine and injured at least 10 in a pub in Bekkersdal, South Africa, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/ Alfonso Nqunjana)
Onlookers gather at the scene of a mass shooting where gunmen killed nine and injured at least 10 in a pub in Bekkersdal, South Africa, Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/ Alfonso Nqunjana)
An explosion in Moscow on Wednesday killed three people, including two police officers, Russian investigators said, days after a car bomb killed a high-ranking general not far away.
An official from Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as GUR, told The Associated Press that the attack had been carried out as part of an agency operation. Another official from the agency said the police officers had taken part in Russia’s war in Ukraine, without providing details. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Russian authorities did not comment on who may be behind the attack. Since Moscow invaded nearly four years ago, Russian authorities have blamed Kyiv for several assassinations of military officers and public figures in Russia. Ukraine has claimed responsibility for some of them.
On Wednesday, two traffic police officers were approaching a suspicious individual when a device detonated, Russia's Investigative Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. The officers and another person standing nearby died from their injuries.
The Interior Ministry named the officers as Lt. Ilya Klimanov, 24, who joined the Moscow police in October 2023, and Lt. Maxim Gorbunov, 25. Gorbunov had a wife and a 9-month-old daughter, the statement said.
The blast took place in the same area of the Russian capital where Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov was killed by a car bomb on Monday. Sarvarov was the head of the Operational Training Directorate of the Russian Armed Forces’ General Staff.
Investigators have said they are looking into whether Ukraine was behind that attack, which was the third such killing of a senior military officer in just over a year. Ukraine has not commented on it.
Ukraine — which is outnumbered by Russia’s larger, better equipped military — has frequently tried to change the course of the war by attacking in unexpected ways.
In August last year, Ukrainian forces staged a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region even as they struggled to stem Russian offensives elsewhere. Moscow’s troops eventually drove them out, but the incursion diverted Russian military resources and raised Ukrainian morale.
In June, swarms of drones launched from trucks targeted bomber bases across Russia.
Moscow has also blamed assassinations on Ukraine. Just over a year ago, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, the chief of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, was killed by a bomb hidden on an electric scooter outside his apartment building. Kirillov’s assistant also died. Ukraine’s security service claimed responsibility for the attack.
In April, Lt. Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, a deputy head of the main operational department in the General Staff, was killed by an explosive device placed in his car parked near his apartment building just outside Moscow..
Days after Moskalik’s killing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he received a report from the head of Ukraine’s foreign intelligence agency on the “liquidation” of top Russian military figures, adding that “justice inevitably comes” although he didn’t mention Moskalik’s name.
Meanwhile, Western officials have accused Russia of staging a campaign of disruption and sabotage across Europe as part of an effort to sap support for Ukraine. Moscow has denied the claims.
Associated Press writer Volodymyr Yurchuk contributed to this report from Kyiv, Ukraine.
This undated photo, distributed by official telegram channel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, shows official portraits of Russian police officers Lt. lya Klimanov and Lt. Maxim Gorbunov, who were killed in an explosion in Moscow, on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (Official telegram channel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia via AP)
Police block the road near the scene of a deadly explosion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
Police block the road near the scene of a deadly explosion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
Police block the road near the scene of a deadly explosion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
Police block the road near the scene of a deadly explosion in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)
