RIA Novosti… Two police officers were killed and another two injured in a series of two explosions, at least one of them caused by a suicide bomber, in Russia’s volatile southern province of Ingushetia, local police said on Monday.
It quoted an Ingush police spokesman as saying that the suicide bomber set off an explosive device when he was stopped by security guards at the gates of a police station in the town of Karabulak. A police source said the second blast occurred just minutes after the first, no one was killed or injured.
“He [the suicide bomber] arrived in a car and it was presumed the car was mined,” local police said. “All security measures were taken and as a result, the police’s fears were confirmed when the car exploded.”
Last week two deadly blasts occurred in two Moscow subway stations claiming some 40 lives and injuring dozens more. The attackers struck the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations about 40 minutes apart during the morning rush hour.
Chechen militant leader Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the metro attacks, saying in a video message they were revenge for a special operation carried out by federal security forces on February 11, 2010, when 18 militants and four civilians were killed in Ingushetia. He threatened further attacks.
Two days after the Moscow subway blasts another two explosions occurred in the town of Kizlyar, in Dagestan near the border with Chechnya, killing12 people and leaving 29 others injured.
The Russian counter-terrorism committee said the organizers of the recent terrorist attacks in Moscow and Kizlyar and some of the suicide bombers have been identified.
President Dmitry Medvedev said the bombings were all links in the same chain, while Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said a single terrorist group carried out the attacks.
Russia has been fighting militants in the North Caucasus for almost two decades, including two brutal wars against separatists in Chechnya.
MOSCOW, April 5 (RIA Novosti)