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Suicide bomber kills one in Russia's Ingushetia
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-12 17:21
MOSCOW: A suicide bomber has blown himself up in a truck at a traffic police checkpoint in Russia's volatile Ingushetia region killing one other person and wounding at least five, Russian agencies reported on Friday. State-controlled RIA news agency, quoting the Ingush interior ministry, said one civilian died in the attack, underscoring the region's Islamist insurgency which local leaders say has permeated all levels of society. Itar-Tass, quoting sources in a local hospital, said two policemen and three passers-by were wounded in the attack. The attack took place at 9:50 pm (1750 GMT) Moscow time, in the region's main city of Nazran, media reported. Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the leader of impoverished Ingushetia, told Interfax he instructed authorities in the region to step up their readiness to combat militants following Friday night's attack. "The atmosphere is very uneasy... It will be controlled by law enforcement agencies," he told Interfax.
Yevkurov and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ex-rebel turned Kremlin loyalist, have warned Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that the insurgency has affected all spheres of society and that they are struggling to contain it. Growing turbulence in the North Caucasus has become a major headache for the Kremlin, which is worried violence could spill over into other parts of Russia, which is home to some 20 million Muslims and dozens of nationalities. Separately on Friday night, a woman carrying grenades and a semi-automatic pistol was caught in a mobile phone shop in Dagestan's capital Makhachkala and detained by police, RIA said. "She wanted to become a martyr and was preparing terrorist activity in Makhachkala," it said, quoting a security source. |