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Suicide bombers' base found at Moscow dacha
On Friday morning explosive experts of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) completed the operation for defusing explosive devices discovered in the village of Tolstopaltsevo, some 30 kilometers westwards from Moscow. According to Interfax news agency, the cache was discovered around 1400 on Thursday in the garage of a 1-storey house during a search, carried out by investigators of the Prosecutor Generalâs Office and the FSB operatives in the framework of the probe into the suicide bombings at the rock concert at Moscowâs Tushino airfield and a blast in central Moscow earlier this month. During the search investigators discovered 6 explosive devices, designed in the form of the so-called shahid [martyr] belts, generally used by Chechen suicide bombers for perpetrating terror attacks in crowded public places. In connection with the operation by 1800 the territory of the village was cordoned off. The place where the cache was found was guarded by 50 traffic police cars, and all roads leading to the village were blocked. Motorists heading to Tolstopaltsevo on Thursday evening were stopped within 3 kilometers from the village. Several fire brigades, ambulances and two rescue teams of the Ministry for Emergency Situations also arrived to the site. By 0800 on Friday the FSB experts defused all six bombs by means of a special robot and water-cannons. The power of every bomb is estimated at over 1 kg of TNT equivalent. According to law enforcers, after the FSB explosives expert Georgy Trofimov died as he was trying to defuse the bomb in Tverskaya Street earlier this month, it was decided that the dangerous must be defused by machines without immediate participation of humans. Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-07-26 |
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