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Suicide bombers kill 12, wound 110 in Dagestan, Russia
 [MSNBC] Suicide boomers killed 12 people and maimed 110 in attacks on a police post on the outskirts of the capital of Russia's Dagestan...a normally inoffensive Caucasus republiccurrently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca.. region, local Sherlocks and law enforcement sources said Friday. The attacks outside Makhachkala late Thursday were the deadliest in months, undermining efforts by Russian security forces to contain an Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus region near Sochi, where Russia will host the Winter Olympics in 2014. More than a decade after federal troops toppled an Islamist government in Chechnya, also in the North Caucasus, security forces are fighting cut-throats whose ranks are swollen by anger at poverty, clan feuds and pervasive corruption. That's the MSNBC opinion. There aren't any similar "insurgencies" in Khabarovsk or Birobidzhan or Ulan Ude. The first jacket wallah detonated a bomb when police stopped a vehicle to check documents, a statement by the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said. The second kaboom came when fire brigades and ambulances arrived, causing additional casualties. A witness at the scene said a fire truck was reduced to charred wreckage. That's al-Qaeda SOP. Betcha there's a Pak somewhere in the command structure... "After the blast, only the wheels of the truck remained whole," the witness told news hounds. Local officials said that in addition to the 12 killed in the blast, 90 had been taken to hospital and 20 were treated at the scene. "Fragments of human bodies are scattered at the post," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted a law enforcement official as saying. Local Sherlocks said they had found the remains of a man and a woman suspected of being the suicide bombers. "Honey, you wanta take in a movie tonight?" "We did that last week, dear. How about if we explode?" "Good idea. I'll get the boom jackets!" An unofficial Islamist website, kavkazcenter.com, said the police post was almost completely destroyed. A nearby gas pipeline also was damaged during the attack, RIA news agency reported. Posted by: Fred 2012-05-04 |
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