[AnNahar] Two Russian coppers died and many people were maimed in a boom-mobile blast at a checkpoint in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan...a formerly 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...
on Monday, the interior ministry said.
The blast occurred as coppers were attempting to inspect a Lada car at a checkpoint near the village of Dzhemikent on the Caspian Sea, the interior ministry's district office said in a statement.
"Two coppers died and two more were hospitalized with injuries," it said.
A source in the region's security forces was quoted by TASS news agency as saying the blast was a suicide kaboom.
"There is only a piece of the head left from the jacket wallah, a foot and a hand. One of the fingers that's left will help identify him," the source said. "The car was sold recently, its previous owner has been identified."
Head of the region Ramazan Abdulatipov said a total of 18 people were maimed.
Russia's anti-terrorist committee (NAK) said the blast was caused by a device placed in a car based on two artillery shells and was equivalent to 30 kilograms of TNT.
"The blast happened inside a passenger car," said a NAK statement quoted by news agencies.
Dagestan has been gripped by nearly daily violence for years due to a simmering Islamist insurgency there, though it has abated during the conflict in Syria which has seen an exodus of Russians from the North Caucasus to join the jihadist fighters in the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group and Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front.
In December, IS grabbed credit for a deadly shooting in Derbent, a city in Dagestan with an ancient citadel that is popular with tourists. The victim was reportedly an employee of the Russian border service.
| Ynet adds: |
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group and carried out by a man who spent time in Syria, said Rasul Temirbekov, front man for the Dagestani branch of the federal Investigative Committee.