Twelve killed by twin bombings in Russia's Dagestan

[icon76]

4 suicide bombings in a couple of days against Russia - must be the work of angry buddhists or militant methodists. Certainly it would be outrageous to suggest that practioners of the religion of peace and tolerance were at it yet again.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8596084.stm

 

At least 12 people, including a top local police official, have been killed by two suicide bombings in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.

 

A car bomb was detonated at about 0830 (0430 GMT) outside the offices of the local interior ministry and the FSB security agency in the town of Kizlyar. Another bomber then blew himself up 20 minutes later as a crowd gathered.

 

Russia is on alert after double suicide bombings on the Moscow Metro on Monday morning, which left 39 people dead.

 

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on security forces to "scrape from the sewers" those responsible. Investigators say they believe the bombers were linked to militants operating in the North Caucasus.

 

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says that although it is too early to say whether there is a link between the attacks in Dagestan and Moscow, they both bear the hallmarks of previous suicide bombings carried out by Islamist militants from the restive region.

 

Last month, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov warned that his fighters' "zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia... the war is coming to their cities".

 

Growing insurgency

 

In Wednesday's attacks, the first suicide bomber detonated his explosives when police tried to stop his car as he drove into the centre of Kizlyar, Dagestani Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said.

 

"Traffic police followed the car and almost caught up - at that time the blast hit," he told local television.

 

Map

 

As police, emergency services personnel and residents gathered at the scene, a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform approached and blew himself up, killing among others the town's chief of police, Col Vitaly Vedernikov, Mr Nurgaliyev added.

 

A total of nine police officers were among the dead. Eighteen people were injured.

 

Kizlyar is close to Dagestan's border with Chechnya, where Russian forces have fought two wars against separatists since 1994 that claimed more than 100,000 lives and left the republic in ruins.

 

Chechnya has in recent years been more peaceful, but the fighting has spread to Dagestan and Ingushetia, where a violent Islamist insurgency is growing.

 

Correspondents say poverty, unemployment and the brutal tactics of the security forces have been factors in driving young men into the ranks of Islamist rebel groups, which want to drive the Russians out.

 

After Wednesday's attacks, Russia's interior minister ordered police to increase security at official buildings across the country, as well as at places where crowds gather, including schools, colleges and cinemas.

 

On Tuesday, Russians observed a day of mourning for those killed the suicide bombings on Moscow's Metro, carried out by two women said to have links to the North Caucasus.

 

The first bomb tore through a carriage of a train at Lubyanka station - beneath the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB) - as it stood waiting for commuters during the morning rush hour.

 

The second explosion, six stops away at Park Kultury, about 40 minutes later. It hit the back of the train as people were getting on.

 

The devices - believed to have been made with the powerful explosive hexogen, also known as RDX - were filled with chipped iron rods and screws for shrapnel.

 

The co-ordinated attacks were the deadliest in Moscow since February 2004, when 40 people were killed by a bomb on a packed metro train as it approached the Paveletskaya station.

 

Prime Minister Putin has said investigators should view catching the organisers of Monday's bombings as a "matter of honour".

 

Russian media reports are linking them to the death earlier this month of a rebel leader from Ingushetia - Alexander Tikhomirov - who was blamed for an attack on a train last year in which 26 people died.

 

The newspaper, Kommersant, quoted security sources as saying they believed Tikhomirov had recruited 30 potential suicide attackers, and that two of them might have avenged his death.

[Treatment]

If I was them I wouldn't muck around with the Russians, their ideas of Human Rights is a last cigarette as they march you across the courtyard.

[alchresearch]

I've noticed that this hasn't made much discussion on the forum. Now if the suicide bombers had dark skins and followed a certain religion I bet people would have been foaming at the mouth!

[truman]

I've noticed that this hasn't made much discussion on the forum. Now if the suicide bombers had dark skins and followed a certain religion I bet people would have been foaming at the mouth!

 

I thought they were?

orrespondents say poverty, unemployment and the brutal tactics of the security forces have been factors in driving young men into the ranks of Islamist rebel groups, which want to drive the Russians out.

[GordonBennet]

I've noticed that this hasn't made much discussion on the forum. Now if the suicide bombers had dark skins and followed a certain religion I bet people would have been foaming at the mouth!

 

Possibly because it has no relevance to people living in Sheffield. The people who bombed Moscow aren't likely to be bombing Sheffield in the near future are they?

[icon76]

Possibly because it has no relevance to people living in Sheffield. The people who bombed Moscow aren't likely to be bombing Sheffield in the near future are they?

 

Were sheffield to be targetted by islamist suicide bombers it's highly unlikely they would hail from the North Caucasus. Much based on profiles of previous bombers who have targetted the UK they are more likely to be of Pakistani descent or converts from the UK. Which is one of the smashing things about the religion of peace, you get such a vibrant and diverse range of self detonating murderous fanatics.