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Russia - Chechnya
Four policemen killed by suicide bomber
Article published on the 2009-08-25 Latest update 2009-08-25 13:19 TU
Tuesday's killing of four policemen follows a suicide attack on Zhukovsky street in central Grozny on 21 August, 2009, in which four police officers also died when two suicide bombers on bicycles blew themselves up.
(Photos: Reuters/Khamzad Ibragimov)
A suicide bomber killed four policemen in Chechnya on Tuesday in the latest attack to hit the troubled Russian region in the north Caucasus mountains.
The bomber blew himself up in the Shali area, east of the capital Grozny. Three of the policeman died instantly while a fourth died in hospital, according to Chechen interior minister Ruslan Alkhanov. He said the bomber had been identified as a local man named Magomed Shakhidov.
Russian prosecutors said two civilians had also been wounded, although the Interfax news agency said two bystanders had died.
According to a security source who spoke to the RIA Novosti news agency, the policemen had been waiting for a car wash to finish cleaning their car when the bomber approached.
The pro-rebel website Kavkazcenter.com suggested the attack has been claimed by the Caucasus Emirate, an umbrella rebel group said to be led by Doku Umarov.
Tuesday’s attack will further alarm Russian authorities. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made an unannounced visit to Chechnya on Monday for talks with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, following a marked increase in violence in recent weeks.
On Friday, two suicide bombers on bicycles killed four policemen in Grozny while last week over 20 people were killed in an attack on a police compound in Nazran, the main city in Ingushetia, which neighbours Chechnya.
Kadyrov has also been accused of abuses by rights groups in the mainly Muslim region, which has long been wracked by violence between Russian forces and separatists.
Earlier this month, Zarema Sadulayeva, the head of Russian NGO Let’s Save the Generation, was found shot dead in Grozny along with her husband.
In July, prominent human rights activist Natalia Estemirova was abducted in Grozny before her body was found in Ingushetia.
