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Blast in Dagestan was very powerful; 2 more bombs explode
EFLA bomb that killed a pregnant woman and two other people in southern Russia was made of an artillery shell stuffed with metal and exploded with the equivalent of 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of TNT, an official said Friday. Zaur Isayev, a deputy chief prosecutor in the southern Dagestan region, said at a news conference that the explosive device in Thursdayâs attack was a 75 mm shell stuffed with nails, nuts and other pieces of metal. He said there was "no doubt that the terrorist act was prepared by professionals." Theyâve had lots of practice. Isayev said authorities had learned recently that Chechen rebels planned attacks aimed at law enforcement officers in the region but did not have enough details to prevent Thursdayâs bombing. The bomb, hidden in a motor scooter fitted with a cargo container, blew up near a police building and Federal Security Service offices in the town of Khasavyurt on Thursday morning, killing the woman, her small child and a police officer who was in his office near the site. Komaludin Komaludinov, deputy chief doctor of Khasavyurtâs central hospital, said Thursday that 38 people were injured, including two who were in grave condition in intensive care. The explosion in Dagestan, which is plagued by violence both related and unrelated to neighboring Chechnya, came on the heels of a series of bombings in Moscow and Chechnya this spring and summer that authorities have blamed on Chechens, in several cases female suicide attackers. In Kaliningrad, a shrapnel-packed bomb exploded in a trash can late Thursday, breaking nearby windows but causing no injuries, ITAR-Tass reported. A potentially powerful explosive device, also filled with metal scraps, was found in a ventilation shaft at the entrance to the main market in the Volga River city of Ulyanovsk on Thursday evening, ITAR-Tass said. Conflict seems to be spreading. Posted by: Steve 2003-07-18 |
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