Russia seeks blame for hospital blast
Military prosecutors in Russia say the head of an army hospital, which was destroyed in a suicide truck bombing, has been detained on suspicion of criminal negligence.
Another commander has been suspended.
At least 42 people are now known to have died in Friday's explosion, in the southern garrison town of Mozdok, near Chechnya.
Rescue workers, accompanied by sniffer dogs, have been retrieving bodies from the rubble of the collapsed four-storey building.
The town, in North Ossetia, is the headquarters for the Russian military campaign against Chechen separatists.
Officers at the military base had explicit orders to search every vehicle. But the suicide bomber was able to drive a truck packed with ammonium nitrate explosive outside the hospital's front doors and detonate it.
The Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, who went to Mozdok on Saturday on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, described the attack as inexcusable.
Mr Putin blamed the attack on the "bloody evil deeds" of Chechen separatists but vowed to press ahead with his plans for a regional presidential election in Chechnya on 5 October.
"The terrorists will not succeed in imposing their criminal will," Mr Putin said in a condolence message.
Lone attacker
A spokesman for the moderate rebel Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov has said the Chechen leadership was not involved in the attack, but that he could not speak for other groups.
Separatists in Chechnya have rejected plans for an election and have vowed to resist Russian forces.
Friday's bomb was the bloodiest since May, when a truck bomb attack in Chechnya killed 60 people.
Last month, 15 people were killed at a rock concert in Moscow when two female bombers blew themselves up.
Witnesses said the bomber in the latest attack was a lone man who rammed the truck through the hospital gates.
"First the gates thundered, then the roar of an engine, then a bang - and everything started to collapse," hospital orderly Tatyana Avilova told Rossiya television.
More than 100 people were in the hospital at the time of the explosion. The victims were mainly soldiers who were receiving treatment after service in Chechnya.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow says the attack is another blow to the Kremlin, which claims to have the situation in Chechnya under control.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3119925.stm
Military prosecutors in Russia say the head of an army hospital, which was destroyed in a suicide truck bombing, has been detained on suspicion of criminal negligence.
Another commander has been suspended.
At least 42 people are now known to have died in Friday's explosion, in the southern garrison town of Mozdok, near Chechnya.
Rescue workers, accompanied by sniffer dogs, have been retrieving bodies from the rubble of the collapsed four-storey building.
The town, in North Ossetia, is the headquarters for the Russian military campaign against Chechen separatists.
Officers at the military base had explicit orders to search every vehicle. But the suicide bomber was able to drive a truck packed with ammonium nitrate explosive outside the hospital's front doors and detonate it.
The Russian Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, who went to Mozdok on Saturday on the orders of President Vladimir Putin, described the attack as inexcusable.
Mr Putin blamed the attack on the "bloody evil deeds" of Chechen separatists but vowed to press ahead with his plans for a regional presidential election in Chechnya on 5 October.
"The terrorists will not succeed in imposing their criminal will," Mr Putin said in a condolence message.
Lone attacker
A spokesman for the moderate rebel Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov has said the Chechen leadership was not involved in the attack, but that he could not speak for other groups.
Separatists in Chechnya have rejected plans for an election and have vowed to resist Russian forces.
Friday's bomb was the bloodiest since May, when a truck bomb attack in Chechnya killed 60 people.
Last month, 15 people were killed at a rock concert in Moscow when two female bombers blew themselves up.
Witnesses said the bomber in the latest attack was a lone man who rammed the truck through the hospital gates.
"First the gates thundered, then the roar of an engine, then a bang - and everything started to collapse," hospital orderly Tatyana Avilova told Rossiya television.
More than 100 people were in the hospital at the time of the explosion. The victims were mainly soldiers who were receiving treatment after service in Chechnya.
The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow says the attack is another blow to the Kremlin, which claims to have the situation in Chechnya under control.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3119925.stm
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