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  • Russian 'suicide blast' kills 37

    Russian 'suicide blast' kills 37

    MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- A suicide bomber has been blamed by Russian officials for a train blast that killed at least 37 people and injured 177 in the south of the country.

    Russia's Interfax news agency reported that the man was helped by three female terrorists, two of whom jumped off the train after Friday's blast near the Chechen border.

    One woman was in critical condition with life-threatening injuries, and it was unclear what happened to the other woman, according to the Interfax report.

    The male suicide bomber, who had grenades strapped to his legs, died in the blast, Interfax reported.

    Russia's security police force, or FSB, said its investigation had turned up the remains of a suicide bomber and a bag or suitcase that contained the explosive materials.

    The powerful bomb detonated inside the train's second carriage and the force of the explosion blew people out of it, according to ministry officials. Video of the scene showed the entire carriage mangled from the blast.

    Rescue workers struggled to pull victims from the mounds of shattered glass and other debris, hours after the blast.

    Some of the victims died after being thrown from the vehicle, while fears were rising that people were still trapped in the wreckage.

    A small fire broke out in the electrical wiring, hampering rescue efforts.

    "The train was moving and then there was an explosion with smoke and ash about," witness Gleb Kovalenko told Rossiya state television. "It happened inside the carriage."

    The Russian prosecutor's office described the explosion as a terrorist act and premeditated murder, and launched a criminal investigation.

    Of the wounded, 127 remain in hospital, with 12 in a critical condition.

    Security experts in the nearby region of Ingushetia are also checking a vehicle found that was laden with explosives and believed to be destined for a terror attack, Interfax news agency reported.

    The incidents came shortly before parliamentary elections throughout Russia.

    CNN's Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty said: "The timing is significant because it is just two days away from parliamentary elections in Russia and that always raises the profile of danger in the country.

    "There has been concern about terrorism and now we have this attack."

    She added that Chechnya had been pushed off the election agenda recently, with economic issues taking center stage, but the troubled breakaway republic was "back on the front pages and TV screens."

    Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov, head of the party backed by President Vladimir Putin in Sunday's polls, vowed to track down the perpetrators, saying: "The ground will burn under their feet."

    The train was near Yessentuki, traveling from Kislovodsk to Mineralnye Vody in Russia's Stavropol region northwest of the Chechen border, when the blast occurred at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) Friday.

    Dozens were injured, Russia's Ministry for Emergency Situations said.

    Because the area has been the site of similar attacks, Russian officials suspect terrorism by Chechen rebels.

    It is the second attack on the same stretch of track in three months. In September, an explosion aboard a passenger train near Kislovodsk killed four and wounded dozens.

    Security was supposed to have been improved on the line.

    Mineralnye Vody, about 890 kilometers (550 miles) south of Moscow, has seen several bus hijackings in the past decade by Chechen rebels demanding the release of jailed comrades.

    Two years ago, a stand-off with Chechen hijackers came to an end in the resort town when Russian commandos stormed the bus and rescued more than 40 passengers. One hijacker was killed in the raid.

    http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe...ast/index.html
    "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

  • #2
    The situation has gotten very bad. Chechen's now resorting to suicide bombing. And Russia still sucks at hostage rescue.

    Comment


    • #3
      Better for the chechans to try to stay alive... the russians will kill more hostages than a suicide bomber ever could.
      Your look more lost than a bastard child on fathers day.

      Comment


      • #4
        Putin says bombers will not win

        Putin says bombers will not win

        Russia will not be cowed by terror attacks after a bomb on a commuter train killed 42 mainly young people, President Vladimir Putin has said.

        Most of the dead and some 200 injured in the rush-hour blast in southern Russia were students going to classes.

        Security is being further tightened ahead of Sunday's parliamentary poll.

        A minister suggested Chechen rebels were behind the bombing near the town of Yessentuki but Chechnya's separatist leadership in exile denied this.

        "We condemn all terror acts and acts of violence... directed against the civilian population," the separatists' foreign ministry said on the rebel website Kavkaz Tsentr.

        The entourage of the Chechen rebel president, Aslan Maskhadov, has disowned suicide attacks in the past which sometimes were later claimed by Chechen warlords nominally allied to his cause.

        President Putin said the attack was an attempt to destabilise Russia in the run-up to the elections.

        Russian Justice Minister Yuri Chaika earlier suggested evidence at the scene pointed to "Chechen terrorism" as a possible theory for the blast which took place in a province which borders the war-ravaged region.

        Investigators believe a male suicide attacker and three female accomplices carried out the attack which ripped a packed railway carriage in two as it was travelling through the southern region of Stavropol.

        The remains of the suspected bomber were found with grenades still attached to his legs, the head of Russian Federal Security Service, Nikolai Patrushev, said.

        He said two of the women had left a large bag in the carriage shortly before the blast and leapt from the train at the last moment.

        The third woman - who was reportedly directing the operation - was seriously injured and unlikely to survive, Mr Patrushev added.

        Condolences

        Thirty five people died at the scene of the blast, reports say.

        Many of the bodies have yet to be identified but an incomplete list of the dead released by the authorities shows that most were in their late teens or early twenties.

        Russian officials said they were students on their way to colleges of higher education in the nearby town of Pyatigorsk.

        The casualties are being treated at hospitals in Yessentuki, Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk.

        President Putin promised that the federal government and regional authorities would "do their utmost to help the blast victims".

        "The criminals will achieve nothing," he said as Stavropol declared Monday a day of mourning.

        Messages of condolences have flooded in from the United States, Germany, France, Britain and other Western states, as well as the ex-Soviet republic of Ukraine.

        "The United States strongly condemns this terrorist act and all acts of terrorism," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said in a statement.

        "We stand with the Russian people in their fight against terrorism," the statement said.

        Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov vowed to track down the "beasts" behind the explosion, promising that the ground would "burn under their feet".

        Shock and bitterness

        Doctors treating the casualties said most had no memory of the blast which came after the train had left Yessentuki station, just before 0740 local time (0440 GMT) on Friday.

        "No one could tell us what had happened," said one in Yessentuki.

        "All they can recall is being thrown about the carriage. The shock waves hurled them against the walls."

        There was bitterness, too, among local people that the bombing had not been prevented after two explosions on the same rail service in September which left six people dead.

        "People are dying by the dozens and they [the security forces] are doing nothing," said one woman at the scene.

        http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3295803.stm
        "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

        Comment


        • #5
          Am i the only one that doesn't see a good guy on either side here?

          They can keep doing us all a favor by killing eachother.

          In as large numbers as possible.

          Comment


          • #6
            It's starting to turn out that way. Now that Shamil Basayev is resorting to suicide bombing.

            Right up until then. He was even praised by a magazine with ties to the U.S. Army, for his Red ass kicking abilities.

            Comment


            • #7
              Am i the only one that doesn't see a good guy on either side here?

              They can keep doing us all a favor by killing eachother.

              In as large numbers as possible.
              A country reverting back to Communism or a Muslim Cluster Fuck of a country. Let them all die.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by M21Sniper
                Am i the only one that doesn't see a good guy on either side here?
                I don't see a good guy either, but I still hope a peaceful solution is found, no matter how improbable.
                No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                Comment


                • #9
                  Some might interpret peaceful for in pieces...
                  Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

                  Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by bigross86
                    Some might interpret peaceful for in pieces...
                    It would be an incorrect interpretation.
                    No man is free until all men are free - John Hossack
                    I agree completely with this Administration’s goal of a regime change in Iraq-John Kerry
                    even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act-John Kerry
                    He may even miscalculate and slide these weapons off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It’s the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat-John Kerry

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Confed999
                      I don't see a good guy either, but I still hope a peaceful solution is found, no matter how improbable.
                      It might be possible with Aslan Maskhodov.(sp?) One of the fun little turn of events is the rivalry that developed between Basayev and him.

                      Also the Chechan villagers, who tend to suffer the most.

                      Easier targets for the Russains. They get masacred, like in Samashki & Bamu. Chased out of the country. Have thier posessions stolen. And thier homes blown up.

                      Meanwhile. Basayev is in a mountain fortress, that the Reds can't even get close to.

                      And now the suicide bombings are doing pretty much the same thing to Russian civi's, that the Russian Army is doing to any Chechen, Rebel or not.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        A country reverting back to Communism or a Muslim Cluster Fuck of a country. Let them all die.
                        One thing that gives Putin the legitamacy to partially revert back to Communism (although not even he is gonna go all the way) is the sense of patriotism that the Chechnyans instill the Russians. If the Chechnyan problem went away, there might not be any calls for unity, and less people would sympathize with Putin.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          The way things are going. And considering it was Yeltsin that gave up last time.
                          Unless America commits to invading Chechnya..Russia may very well lose this one too.

                          Without Russia to unify the Chechen Teips, or Clans. They'd probably have a go at each other. It certainly would be a clusterfuck in another way, without Russians occupying.

                          There's a good chance that the Arab Mercenaries, Mullahs, ect. would want to do away with the Sufi denomination of Islam, and make the Chechens Wahabbist's.

                          In other words. Chechens would be fighting thier (former) Arab allies. Who'd wish to mold Chechnya to the form they want.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            The Russians can't give up. It was the Chechen invasion of Dagestan that caused this current war. It's better to fight Chechens in Chechnya instead of on Russian soil.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              How many 'stans are there exactly? Seems every week I hear of a new one.
                              Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

                              Abusing Yellow is meant to be a labor of love, not something you sell to the highest bidder.

                              Comment

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