Russia - North Caucasus

At least 19 killed in suicide bomb attack

Article published on the 2009-08-17 Latest update 2009-08-18 11:23 TU

Head of Russia's Ingushetia region, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, in the Kremlin
(Photo: Reuters)

At least 19 people were killed when a truck packed with explosives rammed through the gates of a police compound in southern Russia on Monday and exploded. The attack took place in the city of Nazran, the main city in Ingushetia, which neighbours Chechnya. Local officials have declared three days of mourning.

The truck blew up as police officers lined up for roll call during their morning shift, officials said. The blast occurred near the police armamament depot, setting off explosions of ammunition that shook the area afterwards.

Dozens of police officers in the compound were wounded, along with the residents of nearby homes. Overturned cars, twisted rubble and burned trees littered the ground under a thin pall of grey smoke and the broken windows of nearby apartment buildings.

The attack came four days after the Kremlin said the head of Ingushetia was returning to his post despite still recovering from injuries sustained in a bomb attack in June. It has underscored growing fears over stability in the region.

The Moscow-based Investigative Committee of the State Prosecutor's office said that 19 people were killed and 58 others wounded. But a spokesman for Ingushetia President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, Kaloi Akhilgov, told AFP the number of wounded was closer to 70 and included 11 children.

Yevkurov, who was nearly killed in an attempt on his life on June 22, blamed Islamist militants for the attack. "The militants have carried out this terrorist act with the aim of destabilising the situation in the republic and raising their own significance," Yevkurov said through his spokesman.

Speaking to RFI, Professor Alexey Malashenko, Scholar in Residence at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, says that the bomb could be the work of a collaboration between extreme Islamists and corrupt public officials.

“I would say today’s bombing is directed personally at Bek Yevkurov because he promised he would intensify his fight against Wahhabism, against his enemy,” says Malashenko.

“That’s why they organised this bomb, this suicide bombing, they wanted to show they are much stronger than Bek Yevkurov.”

Ingushetia is one of seven administrative territories known as "republics" that constitute the North Caucasus region in southern Russia, the most unstable part of the country. Professor Malashenko says the bomb is linked to Islamist activity in Dagestan and Chechnya.

He thinks “the situation in Ingushetia could become part of a political situation in the whole region.”

Last Wednesday, the republic's construction minister, Ruslan Amerkhanov, was shot dead in a brazen attack in his office.