Community | March 29, 2010 | 77 comments

Russia: Dozens Killed in Moscow Subway Blasts - With Updates

source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/29/russia.subway.explosion/index.html?hpt=T1

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EthicalVegan
March 29, 2010 2:19 a.m. EDT

Moscow (CNN) -- Explosions rocked a pair of central Moscow subway stations during morning rush hour Monday, killing at least 37 people and wounding 10 others, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said.

The first blast occurred about 8 a.m. at Lubyanka subway station. That explosion killed 25 people -- 14 aboard the train and 11 on the platform.

The Lubyanka station is near the Kremlin and the nation's intelligence service, the Federal Security Service.

Another blast happened about 30 minutes later at Park Kultury station, on the same train line. The Emergency Situations Ministry reported 12 dead in the second explosion. Russian TV said the blast killed 15 people and injured at least 10 others.

Millions of commuters use the Moscow metro system every day.

Are you there? Send CNN photos, video text

Officials immediately cast suspicion on Chechen separatists for the explosions. A female suicide bomber in August 2004 killed nine people and herself, and wounded 51 others, when she detonated a bomb outside a subway station in northeastern Moscow. In February 2004, a suicide bomber detonated a bomb on a Moscow metro train, killing 40 people and injuring 100 others. A suicide attack in 2003 killed 15 people at a Moscow concert.

Chechen terrorists killed hundreds in 2004 at a school in Beslan, Russia. They also were suspected in the downing of two Russian airplanes that year in an attack that killed 89.

Chechnya is a southwestern Russian republic, in the Caucasus Mountains region. The Chechens have long fought for independence from Russia.

Chechnya's population of 600,000 to 800,000 is primarily made up of Sunni Muslims and Russian Orthodox Christians. Thousands have been killed and 500,000 Chechen people have been displaced in their conflict with Moscow.

CNN's Matthew Chance contributed to this report.
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77 comments // Russia: Dozens Killed in Moscow Subway Blasts - With Updates

  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://current.com/news/92356374_chechen-rebel-leader-claims-he-ordered-attack-o...

      Chechen rebel leader claims he ordered attack on Moscow subway
      March 31, 2010 7:42 p.m. EDT

      (CNN) -- Chechen rebel leader Dokku Umarov claimed that he personally gave orders to attack the Moscow subway this week, according to a Chechen rebel Web site.

      Kavkaz Center, a Web site that regularly carries messages from the rebels, released a video in which Umarov said he was behind the Monday attacks.

      The attacks were revenge for what Umarov called a "massacre conducted by the Russian occupants against the poorest residents of Chechnya and Ingushetia," the Web site says.

      According to the site, the video was taped the same day as the attacks.

      The incident Umarov referred to is a February special operation by Russian forces, after which there were accusations of Russians killing innocent civilians.

      In the video, Umarov said the victims were simply gathering garlic to make a living.

      According to Russian officials, at least four civilians were killed during the special operation near the Ingushetian village of Arshty on February 11. After investigating the incident, the officials admitted that it was "the season to collect wild garlic" and civilians may have been doing just that despite requests for "evacuation" from the area.

      The president of Ingushetia, Yunus-Bek Evkurov expressed condolences to relatives of the deceased and provided material support in the amount of 50 thousand rubles (about $1,700) for each family.

      The president noted that during the raid 18 militants were also killed.

      The attacks in Moscow, in which two female suicide bombers killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 60 others, were legitimate retribution for what happened in Chechnya, Umarov said in the video. He also promised "new acts of vengeance" in Russia.

      Russians will no longer be able to simply observe the battles in the Caucasus, Umarov said.

      "Therefore, the war will come to your streets, and you will feel it for yourselves and with your own lives," he said in the video.

      Monday's blasts tore through the Lubyanka and Park Kultury stations in central Moscow -- the female bombers detonating their explosives about 40 minutes apart, starting just before 8 a.m. (12 a.m. ET).

      On Tuesday, Russian police released photographs of the two women suspected of carrying out the attacks.

      Special services were also seeking three suspected accomplices of the bombers, Russian state TV reported, citing Moscow police spokesman Viktor Biryukov.

      They were hunting for a 30-year-old man from the Northern Caucasus who was seen on security cameras wearing dark clothes and a black baseball cap, and two women, aged 22 and 45, both ethnic Slavs, who allegedly assisted the man, state TV reported.

      "Our preliminary assessment is that this act of terror was committed by a terrorist group from the North Caucasus region," said Alexander Bortnikov of the Federal Security Service, in reference to the investigation at one of the blast sites.

      The current round of the Russia-Chechnya conflict dates back nearly 20 years, with Chechens having laid claim to land in the Caucasus Mountains region. Thousands have been killed and 500,000 Chechen people have been displaced by the fighting.

      Chechnya is located in the North Caucasus region of Russia between the Black and Caspian seas.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • oppressed1
  • MotherForTruth
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      MotherForTruth  

    • Great job EthicalVegan! Keep the updates coming!

      Terrorism claims innocent lives here in US or across the world, and we ALL should feel sorrow for the loss of life. We must stop the “us against them” attitude and remember we are all humans who simply speak different language.

    • 2 years ago
  • crispyfritters
  • FFFFBOMB
  • CaptB
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      CaptB  

    • Terrorism is horrible. I truly feel for the innocent citizens and their families who were affected. Such a senseless crime.

    • 2 years ago
  • Cicada_Song
  • HaloedGriot
  • EthicalVegan
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    • http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2010-03/52988770.jpg

      Flowers for the victims
      (Sergey Ponomarev / Associated Press / March 29, 2010)

      Flowers are laid outside Lubyanka Square station. Investigators said they had identified one of the bombers and were hunting for two women who were seen on surveillance camera footage accompanying the attackers. Some of the suicide attackers' remains were found in the bombed trains and sent for forensic identification.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-moscow-blast30-2010mar30,0,3...

      A Moscow police officer stops a car as Emergency Ministry officers and firefighters carry a body to an ambulance after explosions rocked two subway stations downtown. (Sergey Ponomarev / Associated Press / March 29, 2010)

      Moscow blasts a challenge to Kremlin

      The deadly suicide attacks killed at least 38 in the heart of downtown Moscow, once again presenting both a challenge to Putin, and an opportunity to consolidate power.

      By Megan K. Stack

      March 30, 2010

      Reporting from Moscow - The suicide bombs that roared through Moscow subway cars Monday were almost certainly the latest salvo in a slow-moving war of attrition between the Russian government and militants in the restive, mostly Muslim republics of the Caucasus.

      Vladimir V. Putin has been trading blows with southern rebels ever since he rose to the presidency a decade ago. At times, violence has threatened to erode the social contract he's struck with the Russian public: Forgo some democratic rights in exchange for, above all, stability.

      And yet, many analysts say, the war in Chechnya consolidated Putin's power, by convincing people to unite with him against the threats. The militants have both menaced and strengthened Putin's leadership, they say.

      On Monday, two female suicide bombers boarded packed subway cars in bustling downtown Moscow in the middle of rush hour and blew themselves up, killing at least 38 people and injuring dozens more. It was the first such attack in Moscow in six years, and it raised the specter of violence creeping back into the heart of Russia.

      The killings seemed intended to rattle the very core of Russian identity. Lubyanka Square, site of the first station to be attacked, holds a deep and unsettling place in the Russian consciousness as the headquarters of the Soviet KGB, and now its successor, the FSB. Next came Park Kultury, another iconic station alongside Gorky Park, where Russian children gather for roller coaster rides, sprawling gardens and ice skating.

      Investigators said they had identified one of the bombers and were hunting for two women seen on surveillance camera video accompanying the attackers to the doors of a subway station in southwest Moscow, law enforcement sources told Interfax news agency.

      Officials recovered some of the remains of the attackers, which were sent for forensic identification. The body parts included a head believed to belong to one of the bombers, unnamed investigators told Russian news agencies.

      "Probably it was a reply to some injustice or atrocity done to their fathers or brothers, whoever, but it's only the end of a tentacle," said Sergei Arutyunov, chair of the Caucasus department at the Russian Academy of Science. "And the tentacles converge in a large, loose body of separatism and pseudo-Islamic fanaticism."

      There was no immediate claim of responsibility, though suspicion fell on Chechen militants, who have used women in a number of attacks.

      However, some officials speculated that the blasts could be an act of vengeance from supporters of Said Buryatsky, an Islamist ideologue who was reported killed by security services this month in the republic of Ingushetia. The Russian government has blamed Buryatsky for a spate of recent attacks, including the November bombing of a high-speed train between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

      An Islamist website later confirmed Buryatsky's death. Another rebel leader, Doku Umarov, threatened Russian cities in a February interview with a website linked to the Islamists. "Blood will no longer be limited to our cities and towns," Umarov said. "The war is coming to their cities."

      The metro explosions occurred a few days after the 10th anniversary of Putin's election to the presidency. In 2008, because of term limits, Putin was forced to give up that office, and he now serves as prime minister. But he is widely seen as Russia's ultimate authority, and many analysts expect him to return to the presidency in the next elections.

      Much of Putin's time in power has been defined by the struggle with Islamic militants in the Caucasus.

      Putin was elevated to national power by President Boris N. Yeltsin, who had fought a disastrous campaign in Chechnya. Putin returned Chechnya to Moscow's control through a second war. After the installation of proxy leadership to crack down on separatists and lingering, heavy-handed efforts to quash violence, the bloodshed has resurged on the southern edge of Russia -- and raised questions about the government's ability to stabilize the country.

      Amid increased fighting and instability in Chechnya, as well as neighboring Ingushetia and Dagestan, Russia has stepped up abductions and assassinations of Islamist leaders. The Islamists, in turn, have vowed to visit bloodshed on cities in the heart of Russia.

      Now Russians are watching keenly to see how Moscow will respond. The public has largely ignored the rampant killings, disappearances and torture that plague its southern flank -- until it spills into Moscow.

      In the past, bombings in Moscow sparked war in Chechnya -- and, analysts say, helped Putin cement his grip on power. Many opposition figures contend, at least privately, that the FSB was behind the bombings of apartment buildings in 1999 that became the impetus for the second Chechen war. The government has vigorously denied involvement, but unexplained contradictions still surround the foiled bombing of an apartment house in the Russian city of Ryazan. People who have noisily called for investigation have, at times, been assassinated under mysterious circumstances.

      "If you follow Russian events, you note that almost every such attack was exploited and taken as a pretext for restricting democratic freedoms in Russia," said Andrei Piontkovsky, a political analyst with the Russian Academy of Science. "It's the usual paradox: It shows the weakness of the government, but at the same time, they may use it to get more power."

      The Monday morning carnage adds to the pressure on a government already struggling to tamp down public discontent over economic woes.

      "Obviously we have not done enough," President Dmitry Medvedev said at an emergency meeting, Russian news agencies reported. State television aired video of Medvedev questioning some of Russia's top officials. During the meeting, the men spoke quietly and spent a lot of time staring into their laps.

      Medvedev later visited the Lubyanka station, where he took the escalator down to the platform and laid flowers at the scene of the explosion. "They are beasts," he told reporters outside, referring to the perpetrators.

      Putin cut short a working trip to Siberia and headed back to Moscow, vowing to unleash vengeance on the groups that organized the attack. This is the man, after all, who famously vowed to hunt terrorists all the way to the toilet.

      "I am confident that law enforcement agencies will do everything to find and punish the criminals," Putin said in a videoconference carried by state media. "The terrorists will be destroyed."

      Putin later ordered that families of the dead be paid 300,000 rubles, about $10,150, plus another $609 to cover the cost of funerals.

      None of that meant much to Yekaterina Marishina, 32, who was taking the metro to the hospital to visit her disabled 6-year-old son. When the train pulled into Lubyanka, the train shook, there was a rattling sound like a toy gun and her vision turned to black and white. She thought she was fainting because she is pregnant.

      She woke up to hear voices calling for survivors. She managed to scream, and was pulled from the wreckage, her feet mangled and her eye injured by shrapnel. Monday afternoon, she lay in a hospital ward. A doctor whispered that her eye was in very bad shape.

      "I don't know if my husband knows what happened to me. I don't remember his number. It was in my cellphone but my cellphone is dead," she said. "Why me?"

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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    • http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/world/europe/30blackwidows.html?hp

      Blasts Revive Russians’ Fear of Female Bombers

      PHOTO: A subway train commuter injured by a blast which took place at the Park Kultury station in Moscow on Monday.

      March 29, 2010
      Blasts Revive Russians’ Fear of Female Bombers
      By ANDREW E. KRAMER

      MOSCOW — The two powerful explosions that tore through Moscow’s subway Monday revived a peculiar fear in the Russian capital, one that goes beyond the usual terrorism worries of a metropolis: the female bomber.

      On Monday, the Russian authorities said the bombings had been carried out by two women, and that they were searching for two suspected female accomplices, the Russian news media reported. Few details of the bombers were released.

      Earlier this decade, Moscow’s fear of female suicide bombers was so strong it became a lurid obsession. Women, sometimes casually adorned in jeans and blending in to the swirl of Moscow, committed at least 16 bombings, including two on board planes.

      The attacks came early — as when a widow killed herself and the Russian commander who had killed her husband in one of the first such attacks in the Chechen war — and sometimes in the most unlikely places, like mingling in line at a music festival, which only multiplied the horror. They joined in some of the most celebrated terrorist attacks in recent Russian history, at a theater in Moscow and a school in Beslan, Russia.

      The women, who came to be called the Black Widows, were not the first women to die this way. That dubious honor goes to a 16 year old Palestinian girl, who drove a truck into an Israeli army convoy in 1985. The Indian prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, was killed in 1991 by a member of the Birds of Paradise, a female group associated with the Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka.

      Suicide bombing was a tactic that came late to Chechnya and was nearly unknown during the first war from 1994 to 1996. But once it arrived, in 2000, in an attack that killed 27 Russian special forces soldiers, it quickly became associated with women.

      The tactic expanded in subsequent years. Females adorned in billowy black robes and strapped with explosives made up 19 of the 41 captors in the October, 2002 hostage taking in the Moscow theater, which ended when Russian special services released a sleep-inducing gas into the building.

      When soldiers entered the auditorium they reportedly walked among into slumped forms and as a first precaution shot dead the Black Widows where they lay, lest they wake up and explode.

      In 2004, female suicide bombers detonated bombs on internal flights; one bomber identified by the Russian authorities was divorced in her early 40s, the other two sisters in their 20s who had also divorced.

      While there is no single reason women decide to give up their lives, experts say they have usually suffered a traumatic event that makes them burn with revenge or question whether they want to live. This can be the death of a child, husband or other family member at the hands of Russian forces or a rape. Russian authorities have said the women are sometimes drugged.

      In 2003, Russian police captured 22-year-old Chechen woman, Zarema M. Muzhakhoyeva, after she left a handbag bomb in a Moscow café. She was not a religious fanatic, her lawyer, Natalya V. Yevlapova, said in a telephone interview, but she had become emotionally distressed after her husband was murdered in what appeared to be a business dispute. “These girls are just pushed into a corner,” Ms. Yevlapova said.

      In recent weeks, the Russian military conducted a series of raids that killed a prominent and charismatic recruiter for the rebels, a man who went by the name Said Buryatsky, along with dozens of other fighters. That had prompted a warning from a prominent rebel leader, who may or may not have made good his threat on Monday.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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    • http://ak.imgfarm.com/images/ap/APTOPIX_Russia_Subway_Blast.sff_MOSB130_20100329...

      EDITOR'S NOTE: THIS IMAGE MUST BE USED IN ITS ENTIRETY AND MUST NOT BE RECROPPED TO ELIMINATE THE LOGO: GRAPHIC CONTENT; --

      In this image made from television, Blast victims lie in a subway train hit by a explosion at Moscow's Lubyanka station, Monday, March 29, 2010, shortly after the blast. Two explosions blasted Moscow's subway system Monday morning as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 37 people, emergency officials and news agencies said.(AP Photo/L!FE NEWS)

      Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All right reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

    • 2 years ago
  • naitiv
    • 0
      naitiv  

    • Russia continues to face attacks as a result of their abusive nature towards all. Russian skinheads reak havoc and other orgs. create terror in this nation. Russia faces the same problems the U.S. faces. Hatred begets hatred.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/analysis-bombings-look-like-the-reven...

      THE MOSCOW TIMES

      Analysis: Bombings Look Like the Revenge of Black Widows
      29 March 2010
      By Nabi Abdullaev

      The female suicide bombers who killed dozens of people in the Moscow metro on Monday were likely avenging the death of their trainer and inspirational leader, a Muslim convert who was slain by FSB commandos earlier this month.

      Since the first female suicide bomber blew herself up in 2001, so-called "black widows" have participated in two-thirds of the nearly 40 rebel attacks that have killed about 900 people in Russia through Monday.

      Other radical groups around the world — in the Palestinian territories, Turkey and Sri Lanka — have also deployed women as walking bombs, but the percentage of their involvement in overall suicide attacks is in the single digits.

      After a series of horrific attacks from 2001 to 2004, a four-year lull was broken in late 2008 with a spate of bombings linked to Said Buryatsky, a Muslim convert born as Alexander Tikhomirov who quickly rose within the rebels' ranks as their chief ideologist.

      Several rebels detained en route to suicide attacks told law enforcement officials that they had been trained by Buryatsky. In his own diaries posted on the rebel web sites Hunafa and Kavkaz Center, Buryatsky told of how he had convinced suicide bombers to take part in bombings last year.

      Federal Security Service commandos killed Buryatsky in a special operation in Ingushetia on March 2.

      The FSB said at the time that 30 suicide bombers trained by him remained at large.

      Two of them were behind Monday's bloodshed, said Alexander Torshin, first deputy speaker of the Federation Council and head of the chamber's commission on the North Caucasus.

      "It seems to me that the terrorist attacks in the Moscow metro were a response to attempts to eliminate odious North Caucasus fighters like Said Buryatsky," Torshin told Interfax. "They, these militants, live in a cold, vengeful environment."

      He said the decision to target the Lubyanka metro station — located below FSB headquarters — spoke volumes about the attackers' motives. "Lubyanka was not chosen accidentally because FSB employees were traveling to work at the time," he said.

      "Black widows," as Russian journalists have dubbed female suicide bombers, are the proven weapon of choice for Islamist rebels from the North Caucasus.

      The first "black widow," a young Chechen named Luiza Gazuyeva, killed a Russian general in Chechnya in November 2001 because she believed that he was responsible for the death of her husband. North Caucasus rebels did not claim responsibility for the attack but quickly moved to capitalize on the public shock of women willing to kill and die for their cause. Before the end of the year, rebel warlord Shamil Basayev announced that he was creating a battalion of shahids, or religious martyrs, called Riyadus Salihin, or Gardens of the Pious, that would be staffed by both men and women.

      Russia's envoy to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, urged journalists on Monday not to call the metro bombers "shahids" because this might provoke sectarian violence.

      "They are in no sense shahids," he said, Itar-Tass reported. "We should not allow the suicidal terrorists who killed dozens of innocent people to be called religious martyrs. They are murderers."

      Female suicide bombers have participated in almost every attack claimed by Riyadus Salihin, starting with the 2002 Nord-Ost hostage-taking in Moscow and three attacks the following year: the bombing of a Moscow rock concert, the bombing of a commuter train in Yessentuki and the self-detonation of a woman outside Moscow's National Hotel.

      Female suicide bombers were blamed for bringing down two passenger planes en route from Moscow and a bombing outside the Rizhskaya metro station in August 2004. They also participated in the Beslan school hostage-taking in September 2004.

      During the four-year lull that followed, Basayev was killed by federal forces in July 2006.

      Then a female bomber blew herself up at a bus stop in Vladikavkaz in November 2008. Last year, suicide bombings again became the tactic of choice for rebels, with six attacks being carried out in July alone in the North Caucasus. Some of the attacks were reportedly carried out by women.

      Several attempts have been made to profile female suicide bombers originating in the Northern Caucasus. The broadest study was conducted by journalist Yulia Yuzik, who wrote in her 2003 book, "The Brides of Allah," that they do not have a single, clear profile. Her book, based on interviews with the families of female suicide bombers, found that the bombers are of all ages and do not necessarily share a history of violence perpetrated against their families. Many are indeed widows whose husbands were killed in federal anti-terrorism operations. But not all of them were religious before they left their homes to join the rebels.

      Terrorism experts have debated what attracts the women to participate in the attacks. Some say the low social status of widows and single women in Chechnya make them easy to recruit, while others say women are more emotional than men and therefore easier to convince to stage suicide attacks.

      But unlike in the Palestinian territories and Sri Lanka, where terrorists began deploying women as living bombs after security services made it all but impossible for male attackers to get to their targets, the North Caucasus rebels have used women from the start of their suicide strategy in 2001, which suggests that they placed their bets on women from the very beginning.

      Since then, the rebels have managed to cultivate a high level of fear with female suicide bombers, making it strategically unwise for them to any longer send men on suicide missions to Moscow.

      http://www.themoscowtimes.com/upload/iblock/fcc/4360-01-russia_subw.jpg

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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    • http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/no-time-to-count-the-dead-only-to-sav...

      'No Time to Count the Dead, Only to Save the Injured'
      29 March 2010
      By Nikolaus von Twickel and Alexandra Odynova

      The gray streets around the Lubyanka metro station seemed eerily quiet in the moments after the first bomb went off at 7:57 a.m. during morning rush-hour traffic.

      Then the masses of people began to emerge from the metro, surging out of underpasses and heading onward by foot.

      The throng included many children. Monday marked the first day of school after a weeklong spring break, with classes beginning at 8:30 a.m.

      Police cordoned off all metro access points on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad, dominated by the towering yet empty-windowed headquarters of the Federal Security Service. Fire trucks and ambulances stood idly waiting. A helicopter clattered into the square for a brief stop.

      As journalists came trickling into the square, some dressed in obvious haste, many wondered out loud why there were no visible signs of a terrorist attack — no traumatized or bleeding passengers anywhere to be seen.

      As news started swirling about the second bomb blast at 8:37 a.m. in the Park Kultury metro station, officials approached the pack of reporters gathered near the empty grass knoll where the statue of Soviet secret police founder Felix Dzerzhinsky once stood.

      Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin spoke first, announcing an update on the number of victims and saying the Lubyanka blast had occurred in the second train car.

      Minutes later, Moscow's white-haired chief prosecutor, Yury Syomin, wearing a bright blue coat, a huge saucer cap and glasses, emerged from the metro. He was one of the first officials to say the attacks appeared to have been carried out by female suicide bombers. He also said the Lubyanka train had already closed its doors and was about to leave the station headed north when the explosion occurred.

      Pressed by reporters about the number of victims, Syomin said soberly, “There is no time to count the dead, only time to save the injured.”

      Later, a white Emergency Situations Ministry helicopter with orange and blue stripes swooped onto the square. It left 15 minutes later. It was not immediately clear whether it had picked up any victims.

      Despite nearly immediate media coverage, passengers riding on the Ring Line less than an hour after the first explosion were calm, answering repeated calls from anxious friends and relatives. Most of the metro continued operating throughout the day.

      Loudspeakers announced that trains had stopped running between the Komsomolskaya and Sportivnaya stations on the Red Line, while all transfers between lines were closed "for technical reasons."

      Seven kilometers across town from Lubyanka — or three stops southbound along the metro's Red Line — wounded survivors of the second blast were seen being rushed from the scene by helicopter and ambulance.

      Passengers exiting the Ring Line station panicked as they saw bloody rags outside the exit and crowds of police, firefighters and health officials directing them through the smoke-laden air.

      Some confused passers-by tried to break though the police cordon, vividly explaining that they needed to get to work.

      Mayor Yury Luzhkov arrived at about 10 a.m., when the injured had already been rushed away. Looking pale and stressed in his black coat and trademark cap, the mayor approached reporters to comment briefly on the latest developments.

      "According to the FSB, the attacks were carried out by two female suicide bombers," Luzhkov said. The bombs were detonated when the trains were near passenger platforms so that the casualty toll would be higher, he said.

      Rumors soon began flying about a third attack at the Prospekt Mira station, although police quickly corrected the information and asked journalists to be more careful.

      By evening, both stations had been reopened, and state television showed Luzhkov and President Dmitry Medvedev laying flowers at Lubyanka.

      An emotional Medvedev told reporters and mourners that justice would be done.

      "We'll find them, and we'll eliminate them all. The same way we recently eliminated everyone who organized the Nevsky Express explosion. To dust," he said.

      "This cannot be tolerated anymore."

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • Reaper26
    • 0
      Reaper26  

    • wow still to this day they are dealing with the Chechen think its been over 10 years of fighting. plenty of massacres and innocents have died due to a result of this conflict.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
  • MotherForTruth
  • EthicalVegan
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  • EthicalVegan
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      EthicalVegan  

    • http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/twin-moscow-metro-bombings-kill-38/40...

      PART TWO

      THE MOSCOW TIMES

      The Lubyanka bomber blew herself up in the metro's only "Red Arrow" train — painted in bright red instead of the usual pale blue and named after a famous Moscow-St. Petersburg train — at a station whose name has symbolized the country's secret service for decades.

      Exactly 40 minutes later, at 8:37, a second bomb exploded on the same red line of the metro, killing at least 12 and injuring 21. That bomb went off at the Park Kultury metro station, near the prestigious Ulitsa Ostozhenka, while the train was standing at the platform with its doors open, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.

      The force of the blast was the equivalent of two kilograms of dynamite, about half of the strength of the Lubyanka bomb, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said in a statement.

      This and the fact that the second bomb claimed fewer casualties gave credence to reports that the suicide bombers had used pairs of explosive devices, one of which had failed to go off at Park Kultury.

      "A second, intact explosive belt has been found at the scene along with remains of a body — the head and limbs — of a young woman," Interfax quoted a law enforcement source as saying.

      "The woman looked about 18 to 20 years old with brown eyes and resembled a native of the Caucasus," the source said.

      The remains of the suspected bombers found at both stations were sent to laboratories for forensic tests.

      Surveillance cameras caught the two suspected bombers boarding a train at the Yugo-Zapadnaya metro station, located at the bottom of the red line in the city's southwest, Itar-Tass reported.

      They were accompanied by two Slavic-looking women, news reports said.

      The suspected accomplices were about 25 and 40 years old. Both wore skirts, jackets and scarves, and one of them was carrying a big bag, a law enforcement source told RIA-Novosti.

      Investigators were also looking for a third suspect, a man in his 30s with a short beard, dressed in dark clothes and a cap, and about 180 centimeters tall, the report said.

      Police spokesman Viktor Biryukov said a female Moscow resident phoned in a tip about a planned explosion Sunday evening. "She called at 5:36 p.m. and said she was approached by Caucasus natives at the Konkovo metro station, close to the southern end of the orange line, who said they had planted a bomb and were going to activate it," Biryukov said, RIA-Novosti reported.

      He said policemen had searched the station but found nothing.

      Prosecutor General Yury Chaika took personal control of the investigation into Monday's attacks, his office said in a statement posted on its web site.

      Speaking to reporters at the Park Kultury station, Mayor Yury Luzhkov announced that the city's main aim was to restore regular metro traffic on the red line.

      Both stations were reopened shortly after 5 p.m., Interfax reported.

      Investigative Committee spokesman Markin announced that the city police had beefed up security to avert further incidents. "We call on the citizens to be more careful and vigilant and to report suspicious activity to the police," Markin told reporters outside the Park Kultury station.

      The bombings triggered some violence against Muslim and Caucasus-looking people.

      Speaking on Ekho Moskvy radio, an unidentified caller said Monday afternoon that a middle-aged passenger attacked two women wearing headscarves at the Avtozavodskaya metro station for no evident reason. The assailant was soon joined by other passengers who kicked the women on the platform. No one intervened, the caller said.

      The Avtozavodskaya station was the scene of a metro blast in 2004 that killed 39 people.

      The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, called on the nation for solidarity.

      "We clearly see that danger threatens each of us at any minute. Let's not respond to the danger with fear, panic or anger," Kirill said in a statement.

      Kirill also denounced taxi drivers for wildly hiking fares after the attacks. "This money will do you no good," he said. "Return it, spend it on a good cause. A desire to cash in on someone's distress will only bring you grief."

      Most of those killed or injured were under 40, Health and Social Development Minister Tatyana Golikova told a special meeting with Emergency Situations Ministry officials.

      A list of the dead published on the Emergency Situation Ministry's web site included two men from Armenia. An Armenian woman was hospitalized with injuries, the report said.

      Other foreign victims included a 39-year-old Filipino woman and two 23-year-old men from Malaysia. All three were discharged from the hospital with minor injuries, Interfax reported.

      The federal government said families of those killed would receive about 1 million rubles, while victims who suffered serious injuries would get 400,000 rubles and those with light injuries would get 200,000 rubles.

      City Hall also plans to pay compensation of 50,000 to 300,000 rubles, Interfax reported.

      Tuesday was declared a day of mourning by City Hall.

      •

      A mine was discovered Monday on a railway line in the Kaluga region, south of Moscow, Interfax reported Monday, citing police spokeswoman Tatyana Agapova.

      The mine had been placed between the rails, and a bomb disposal squad was at the scene, Agapova said

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://www.themoscowtimes.com/index.php

      THE MOSCOW TIMES

      PART ONE

      Twin Moscow Metro Bombings Kill 38

      29 March 2010
      By Nikolaus von Twickel

      Two female suicide attackers hit Moscow's metro in coordinated rush-hour attacks Monday morning that left at least 38 people dead and more than 70 injured.

      Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov said the bombs were filled with bolts and iron rods. Many of the injured were reported to be in grave condition, making it likely that the death toll would rise.

      (More photos from both scenes can be found here)

      The attack was the deadliest in the city in six years and the first to involve a double attack on the metro, resembling tactics commonly used by al-Qaida Muslim extremists.

      Officials were quick to blame insurgents from the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus. "Preliminary evidence suggests that the attacks were carried out by terrorist groups linked to the North Caucasus," Bortnikov said at an emergency Kremlin meeting chaired by President Dmitry Medvedev.

      He said the remains of two women found at the sites of the attacks pointed to suicide bombers.

      No one had claimed responsibility for the attacks by Monday evening.

      An emotional Medvedev promised mourners at the Lubyanka metro station, the site of the first explosion, on Monday evening that those responsible for the attacks would be killed.

      "We'll find them, and we'll eliminate them all, the same way we eliminated everyone who organized the Nevsky Express explosion," he said.

      FSB commandos killed the suspected organizer of the Nevsky Express train bombing, Said Buryatsky, in Ingushetia early this month. The attack on the train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg last November killed 28 people.

      Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who cut short a trip to Siberia, also vowed to "eliminate" Monday's attackers during a hastily arranged video call from Krasnoyarsk. "A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed. … I am convinced that law enforcement agencies will do everything to find and punish the criminals. The terrorists will be eliminated," he said, according to a transcript on his web site.

      Late Monday, Putin visited injured passengers at Moscow’s Botkinskaya Hospital. A total of 72 people were in hospitals late Monday, the Health and Social Development Ministry said.

      Condolences poured in from around the world. U.S. President Barack Obama called Medvedev to promise a united front in the fight against terrorism, while Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, said the attacks were acts of cowardice.

      The first bomb ripped through a train car at the Lubyanka station at 7:57 a.m., chief city prosecutor Yury Syomin said. The southbound train had just closed its doors and was heading for the Okhotny Ryad station when the explosion went off in the second train car.

      The explosives apparently were attached to the attacker's body, Syomin told reporters after emerging from the Lubyanka station opposite the headquarters of the Federal Security Service. The bomb, later described to have the force of four kilograms of dynamite, killed at least 23 people and injured 20, Interfax reported, citing an Emergency Situations Ministry source.

      CONTINUED...

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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    • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8593961.stm

      Moscow Metro bombing masterminds 'will be destroyed'

      Commuter Alan Broach: "There was a lot of fear and concern around"

      The masterminds behind a double suicide bombing on the Moscow Metro will be destroyed, Russia's leaders have said.

      The attacks, in the morning rush hour, killed at least 38 people and injured more than 60, officials say.

      No group has said it carried out the attacks, but security services have blamed rebels from the North Caucasus - which includes Chechnya and Ingushetia.

      President Dmitry Medvedev laid a wreath at the scene of one of the attacks, labelling the plotters "beasts".

      He said: "We will find and destroy them all."

      US President Barack Obama called President Medvedev to "personally convey" his condolences, adding that the US was ready to co-operate with Russia to help bring to justice those responsible for the blasts.

      A Chechen link to bombs?

      Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had also earlier vowed to hunt down those responsible, saying: "Terrorists will be destroyed."

      He described the attacks, believed to have been carried out by female bombers, as "heinous".

      The Moscow city government declared Tuesday would be a day of mourning.

      Past suicide bombings in Moscow have been carried out by - or blamed on - Islamist rebels fighting for independence from Russia in Chechnya.

      A Chechen rebel leader recently promised to bring the war to Russia's cities, months after Mr Medvedev declared an end to Moscow's "anti-terrorism operations" in the mainly Muslim republic.

      More than 100,000 people have been killed in 15 years of conflict in Chechnya and low-level insurgencies continue there and in the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan.

      'City is a mess'

      The first explosion tore through a carriage of a train at central Lubyanka station at 0756 (0356 GMT) as it stood waiting for commuters to board.

      Alexander Bortnikov, FSB chief: Suicide bombers "linked to the North Caucasus"

      The station lies beneath the headquarters of the Federal Security Service (FSB).

      "I was moving up on the escalator when I heard a loud bang, a blast," an eyewitness named Alexei told Rossiya 24 TV channel.

      "People started running, panicking, falling on each other."

      The second explosion, six stops away at Park Kultury, came at 0838 (0438 GMT). It hit the back of the train as people were getting on board.

      "I was in the middle of the train when somewhere in the first or second carriage there was a loud blast. I felt the vibrations reverberate through my body," one passenger told the RIA news agency.

      The security services said the bomb that went off at Lubyanka station had an equivalent force of up to 4kg of TNT, while the bomb at Park Kultury was equivalent to 1.5-2kg of TNT.

      The devices - believed to have been made with the powerful explosive hexogen, also known as RDX - were filled with chipped iron rods and screws for shrapnel.

      'Terrorist' claims

      The city's Metro is one of the busiest underground railways in the world, carrying about 5.5 million passengers a day.

      The system was partially disrupted following the attacks, but damage to the stations was minimal and both had reportedly reopened by the evening rush hour.

      FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said its investigators believed the attacks had been carried out by "terrorist groups related to the North Caucasus".

      "Fragments of the bodies of two female suicide bombers were found earlier at the scene of the incident and examinations show that these individuals came from the North Caucasus region," he said.

      The co-ordinated attacks were the deadliest in Moscow since February 2004, when 40 people were killed by a bomb on a packed metro train as it approached the Paveletskaya station.

      Six months later, a suicide bomber blew herself up outside another station, killing 10 people. Both attacks were blamed on rebels from Chechnya.

      CLICK ON NEWS LINK FOR MORE VIDEOS

      MOSCOW METRO ATTACKS
      March 2010: Two suicide bombers blow themselves up at Lubyanka station and Park Kultury station, killing 35 people
      August 2004: Suicide bomber blows herself up outside Rizhskaya station, killing 10
      February 2004: Suicide bombing on Zamoskvoretskaya line, linking main airports, kills 40
      August 2000: Bomb in pedestrian tunnel leading to Tverskaya station kills 13
      February 2000: Blast injures 20 inside Belorusskaya station
      January 1998: Three injured by blast at Tretyakovskaya station
      June 1996: Bomb on the Serpukhovskaya line kills four

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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    • http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/29/russia.subway.explosion/index.html?hp...

      Female suicide bombers blamed in Moscow subway attacks
      By the CNN Wire Staff
      March 29, 2010 1:10 p.m. EDT

      Moscow, Russia (CNN) -- Russian investigators combing two subway stations attacked by female suicide bombers think Chechen rebels may have been behind the rush-hour strike that killed dozens of people.

      "Our preliminary assessment is that this act of terror was committed by a terrorist group from the North Caucasus region," Alexander Bortnikov of the Federal Security Service said of the investigation at one of the blast sites.

      "We consider this the most likely scenario, based on investigations conducted at the site of the blast," Bortnikov said. "Fragments of the suicide bombers' body found at the blast, according to preliminary findings, indicate that the bombers were from the North Caucasus region."

      Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the "terrorists" responsible for the Moscow subway attacks Monday "will be destroyed."

      "We are providing Moscow metro with additional CCTV cameras. Today's events show we should not only continue this work but to make it more effective. Changes in legislation may be necessary."

      The two explosions that rocked the subway stations in central Moscow during rush hour killed at least 38 people and wounded more than 60 others, spawning widespread public outrage.

      "It's disgusting," one witness said. "I don't know who did it and what they wanted. Life is so short. How could people commit such terrible acts?"

      Although the they have yet to claim responsibility, Bortnikov's statement is a strong implication that Chechen rebels fighting for independence were behind the strike.

      How Chechen rebels threaten Russian stability

      Thousands have been killed and 500,000 Chechens displaced in the Chechen rebels' almost 20-year conflict with Moscow. The area is in the North Caucasus region of Russian between the Black and Caspian seas.

      The first blast occurred at 7:56 a.m. at Lubyanka subway station, the Ministry of Emergency Situations reported on its Web site. The Lubyanka station is near the Kremlin and Federal Security Service headquarters. The Federal Security Service is Russia's intelligence agency.

      Another blast happened about 40 minutes later at Park Kultury station, on the same train line. Three Moscow hospitals were treating the wounded, the ministry said.

      Are you there? Send photos, video, stories

      Yulia Shapovalova of Russia Today TV was at the second station at the time of the blast.

      "The staff members started urgently evacuating people, so that meant they probably knew about the first blast at the Lubyanka station," she said. "All the people -- a huge crowd of people -- slowly started to move. ... As soon as I got upstairs, I heard the blast."

      "It was a terrorist act carried out by the female suicide bombers," Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov said of the first and most lethal explosion, citing the Federal Security Service. "They were specifically timed -- for ... the train was nearing the station -- to make the most damage."

      Both stations reopened about 5 p.m. Moscow time, according to Veronica Molskaya from the Press Service of the Russian Emergencies Ministry.

      In St. Petersburg, three metro stations were shut as the result of a bomb scare.

      Millions of commuters use the Moscow metro system every day. An estimated 500,000 people were riding trains throughout the capital at the time of the attacks. It was unclear when the system would return to normal service, and the incident generated fear among commuters.

      "I feel scared," one woman said on TV. "I have to walk to get to work, because there is no way I'm going by Metro."

      The attacks reverberated around the globe.

      U.S. President Obama condemned the "outrageous acts" and passed along his condolences.

      "The American people stand united with the people of Russia in opposition to violent extremism and heinous terrorist attacks that demonstrate such disregard for human life," Obama said.

      Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she will offer her condolences to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Monday in Ottawa, Canada, where the Group of Eight foreign ministers are meeting to plan for the June G8 meeting in Canada.

      "This brutal assault on innocent civilians is another reminder that terrorism is a threat to peace-loving people everywhere and must be met with unwavering resolve," she said.

      "Together with our G8 partners, we will discuss how to further strengthen international counter-terrorism coordination and cooperation."

      New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said police are stepping up security in the New York City subway system.

      In Washington, Metro, the operator of the city's transit system, said it is expanding security in light of the Moscow attacks. Coincidentally, it had a terror drill this past weekend and is holding another one Monday.

      Why no subway is safe from terror

      Amtrak, the national passenger rail network, said there is "no specific threat " to its system, but its police assigned to the FBI's National and Regional Joint Terrorism Task Force "remain informed regarding any potential threats and other security issues."

      In Atlanta, Georgia, MARTA's police department has heightened security measures throughout the transit system.

      British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was "appalled" by the incident and sent condolences to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, according to Britain's Press Association.

      U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack and said he "is confident that the Russian authorities will bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous terrorist attack."

      Interpol, the international police agency, condemned the attacks and offered help to Russian authorities in the investigation.

      Interpol's executive director of police services, Jean-Michel Louboutin, called the actions "despicable and senseless attacks targeting the public."

      CNN's Matthew Chance, Paul Courson and Eddie Demarche contributed to this report.

    • 2 years ago
  • lilysol
    • +1
      lilysol  
    • EthicalVegan:

      Wow, thanks for all the updates. Condolences to the dead and their families. Unfortunately "wiping them all out" will only beget more violence whether within Russia or around the world. Hopefully these worldwide anti-terrorism messages the G-8 discuss will include some form of dialogue or something with sane members of opposing sides even though wounds are very raw.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
    • lilysol:

      You're very welcome, as well. Two of you appreciated it; one did not.

      I know of Russians who'd be wanting to catch up on this, yet aren't savvy enough to search the Internet for articles and photos, so.... if only for them... just had to do it.

    • 2 years ago
  • Einsam_Data_Old
  • sb_spoons
  • MotherForTruth
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
    • +1
      EthicalVegan  
    • EthicalVegan:

      And then someone ELSE just posted about "overkill," etc. Can't win, can't lose, can't please. If the person didn't like the number of articles and photos, then I do believe there's the option of going to another site. It's always so much easier to be negative, isn't it?

    • 2 years ago
  • blkblk13
  • MotherForTruth
  • iameam
  • Nephwrack
  • HaloedGriot
  • CalgarC
  • Proverbs1824
  • 02
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    • Proverbs1824:

      No one wants to read stupid bible quotes. Isn't there a site somewhere that caters to it - where you go paste up all the quotes you like? Maybe a self-help group where people could sit and quote bible passages to each other?

      Of course, you'd have to listen to it, that wouldn't be so hot.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • MotherForTruth
  • dansHQ
    • +1
      dansHQ  

    • Where there's terror, there's war.
      Where there's a war there's most definitely terror.
      It seems peace went out of the Window centuries ago.

    • 2 years ago
  • richjm
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  

    • http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7533884/Moscow-metro-bla...

      Moscow metro blasts: female suicide bombers kill 35
      Two female suicide bombers known as “black widows” blew themselves up in Moscow’s busy metro during morning rush hour killing at least 35 people, according to the Russian authorities.

      By Andrew Osborn, in Moscow
      Published: 8:43AM BST 29 Mar 2010

      A further forty people were reported badly wounded.

      Though no group has so far claimed responsibility for the atrocity, security sources said early indications suggested that the suicide bombers were from the volatile North Caucasus region that includes Chechnya.

      If that is right, it would be the first time since 2004 that Islamist extremists have struck the Moscow metro, raising the terrifying spectre of a new bombing campaign aimed at Russia’s biggest cities.

      Prosecutors opened a criminal case immediately, saying they would be working on the basis that the explosions were the work of terrorists.

      The bombers struck two separate metro stations in central Moscow – Lubyanka and Park Kultyry - in a carefully coordinated attack.

      At least 22 people were reported dead at the Lubyanka metro station, which is situated close to the headquarters of the FSB security service, the successor agency to the KGB.

      Witnesses said an explosion tore through one of the carriages as the train was coming into the station killing commuters onboard as well as people standing on the platform. Dozens were reported wounded.

      One witness, a policeman, said the bomb went off as the train’s doors opened and people poured out. Officials said the suicide bombers were wearing belts around their bodies packed with explosives. There were unconfirmed reports that they had set off the bombs using their mobile phones.

      A second explosion at the busy Park Kultyry metro station located close to Moscow’s famous Gorky Park followed about forty minutes later.

      It is not clear how many people that blast killed and wounded though some reports said up to fifteen people had lost their lives. Officials said the attacks had been conducted in identical fashion and that the overall death toll was likely to rise.

      There were unconfirmed reports of a third blast at a third metro station, Prospekt Mira, but officials said they could not confirm whether that was true or not.

      Traffic on the metro system, one of the world’s busiest, was disrupted as emergency service vehicles surrounded the stations affected. Police said sniffer dogs were checking for explosives before removing victims’ bodies. Mobile phone networks crashed as people scrambled to find out about their loved ones, long traffic jams formed, and emergency hotlines were set up.

      Islamist rebels seeking to establish an Islamic caliphate on Russia’s southern tip have largely confined their attacks to the North Caucasus area they want to control in recent years. But a bombing of a passenger train between Moscow and St. Petersburg last November that left dozens dead suggested they may be preparing to widen their campaign to Russia’s big cities.

      Russian security forces claim to have killed a number of high profile militants in recent months including one of the movement’s principal ideologues and strategists. Russian politicians said at the time that the rebels were likely to strike back to show they are still a force with which to be reckoned.

      Vladimir Putin, the prime minister, was travelling outside Moscow at the time and was being kept abreast of the situation, his spokesman said. Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB security service, briefed President Dmitry Medvedev about the situation as security across the Russian capital was tightened

    • 2 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • EthicalVegan
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      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/mar/29/russia-terrorism

      Live blog: Moscow metro bombings

      At least 35 people die in suspected suicide blasts on Moscow's subway system this morning. Follow the latest updates here

      A woman cries at the exit of the Lubyanka metro station in Moscow. Photograph: Alexander Natruskin/Reuters

      The basic facts as we know them so far are straightforward and grim: at least 35 people killed in apparently co-ordinated suicide blasts on metro trains during Monday morning's rush hour. The death toll is likelty to rise. Authorities have swiftly declared the blasts to be the result of terrorism, but as yet there is no indictation who may be responsible.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
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    • http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n214701

      Attacks in Moscow metro were expected, there probably would be more: Ivan Boyadzhev
      29 March 2010 | 10:19 | FOCUS News Agency
      Sofia. What happened in the Moscow metro was expected to happen, a counter-terrorism expert and adviser of security at Sofia Municipality Ivan Boyadzhiev said for FOCUS News Agency .
      “Recently, there was serious silent at the front of the bid terrorist attacks and now they are heading upwards. There will be more. They normally run for one parabola, "he said. In his words - there is currently complicated operating environment everywhere - in Europe and America. "The new research may now speak not only for common terrorism, but for international terrorism. Terrorism has no country, no borders, no nationality, no religion, regardless of whether it is Muslim, Christian, or any other religions. No party affiliation. Large groups able to make great offense are gathering. And there is no greater crime of terrorism with the use of hand-made explosive devices. This is evident in the world practice. Many years passed since the terrorist attack on September 11 in America, the Madrid bombings, the London bombings etc. now they occur closer", Ivan Boyadziev commented.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  

    • http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/29/AR2010032900099....

      Suicide bombers kill at least 37 in Moscow metro

      By Ludmila Danilova
      Reuters
      Monday, March 29, 2010; 3:04 AM

      MOSCOW (Reuters) - At least 37 people were killed and 33 wounded on Monday when suicide bombers detonated explosives on two packed Moscow metro trains during the morning rush hour, the worst attack in the Russian capital for six years, officials said.

      No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts but suspicion was likely to fall on groups from Russia's North Caucasus, where the Kremlin is fighting a growing Islamist insurgency.

      The first blast just before 8 a.m. (12.00 a.m. ET) tore through the second carriage of a train as it stood at the Lubyanka metro station, close to the headquarters of Russia's main domestic security service FSB. It killed at least 23 people.

      Another blast about 40 minutes later wrecked the second carriage of a train waiting at the Park Kultury metro station, killing 14 more people.

      "Two female terrorist suicide bombers carried out these bombings," Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told reporters at Park Kultury metro station.

      Surveillance camera footage posted on the Internet showed motionless bodies lying in Lubyanka station lobby and emergency workers treating victims.

      The Russian rouble fell to 34.25 from 34.13 against the central bank's euro-dollar basket. Russian equity markets opened down 0.15 percent.

      Russian prosecutors said they had opened an investigation. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was being updated regularly on developments, a spokesman said.

      The current death toll makes it the worst attack on Moscow since February 2004, when a suicide bombing killed at least 39 people and wounded more than 100 on a metro train.

      Chechen separatists were blamed for that attack.

      (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  

    • MOSCOW – Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow's subway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers Monday, killing at least 35 people and wounding more than 30, the city's mayor and other officials said.

      Emergency Ministry spokeswoman Svetlana Chumikova said 23 people were killed at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB's main successor agency.

      A second explosion hit the Park Kultury station about 45 minutes later. Chumikova said at least 12 were dead there.

      Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said both explosions were believed to have been set off by female suicide bombers as the trains entered the stations. In the first case, officials said the explosion was on the train; there was no immediate information on the location of the second blast.

      "The first data that the FSB has given us is that there were two female suicide bombers," Luzhkov told reporters at the Park Kultury site.

      Russia's top investigative body also said terrorism was suspected.

      The last confirmed terrorist attack in Moscow was in August 2004, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a city subway station, killing 10 people.

      Responsibility for that blast was claimed by Chechen rebels and suspicion in Monday's explosions is likely to focus on them and other separatist groups in the restive North Caucasus region.

      The Moscow subway system is one of the world's busiest, carrying around 7 million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.

      The blasts practically paralyzed movement in the city center as emergency vehicles sped to the stations. Helicopters hovered over the Park Kultury station area, which is near the renowned Gorky Park.

      Passengers, many of them in tears, streamed out of the station, one man exclaiming over and over "This is how we live!"

      At least a dozen ambulances were on the scene.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8592190.stm

      Moscow Metro hit by deadly suicide attacks

      At least 37 people have been killed in two suspected suicide bombings on the Moscow Metro system at the peak of the morning rush hour, officials have said.

      The first blast occurred in the central Lubyanka station at 0756 (0356 GMT). Police said the dead included 14 people inside a train and 11 on the platform.

      The second explosion came about 40 minutes later at the Park Kultury station, where 12 people were killed.

      Authorities in the Russian capital have declared them "terrorist" incidents.


      We can assume that belts with explosive devices were attached to their bodies
      Yuri Syomin
      Moscow Chief Prosecutor

      Profile: Moscow Metro

      The BBC's Rupert Wingfield Hayes in Moscow says no-one has yet claimed responsibility, but the explosions do appear to have been co-ordinated.

      Suspicion is likely to fall on groups in the troubled North Caucasus region, where the authorities are fighting Islamist militants, he says.

      Moscow's metro is one of the busiest subways in the world, carrying some 5.5m passengers a day.

      'No fire'

      Emergency services ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said the first explosion tore through the second carriage of a train as it stood at Lubyanka.

      The station, on the busy Sokolnicheskaya and Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya lines, is close to the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

      Emergency services carry a body from a Metro station in Moscow (29 March 2010)
      Moscow's Metro is one of the busiest in the world, with millions of passengers

      "There was no fire. Rescuers of the Moscow emergencies department and firefighters are now working at the site," she added.

      The second blast at Park Kultury, which is also on the Sokolnicheskaya line, came at 0838 (0438 GMT).

      Moscow's chief prosecutor, Yuri Syomin, told reporters that preliminary reports indicated the incident at Lubyanka was a suicide bombing.

      "We can assume that belts with explosive devices were attached to their bodies," he said. "The scenario was similar at Park Kultury."

      Moscow's mayor said investigators believed the suicide bombers were women.

      Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who is currently visiting Siberia, is "receiving detailed information from security agencies and social services about the work on helping the victims", a spokesman said.

      Russian forces have scored a series of successes against militants in recent weeks. In February, at least 20 insurgents were reportedly killed in an operation by Russian security forces in Ingushetia.

      There was a major attack on the Moscow Metro in February 2004, when at least 39 people were killed by a bomb on a packed train as it approached the Paveletskaya Metro station.

      Six months later, a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a station, killing 10 people. Both attacks were blamed on Chechen rebels, who had targeted the capital in the past.

    • 2 years ago
  • EthicalVegan
    • 0
      EthicalVegan  
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    • http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/world/europe/29moscow.html?hp

      Subway Blasts Kill Dozens in Moscow
      By CLIFFORD J. LEVY
      Published: March 29, 2010

      March 29, 2010
      Subway Blasts Kill Dozens in Moscow
      By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

      MOSCOW — Huge explosions during morning rush hour in two subway stations in central Moscow killed more than 33 people on Monday, officials said, raising fears of a renewal of terrorism here.

      The causes of the blasts were not immediately clear, but the government said it suspected suicide bombers, Russian news agencies reported.

      The subway system, one of the world’s most extensive, had been subjected to attacks related to the separatist war in Chechnya in the early part of the last decade.

      Officials said the first explosion Monday occurred at 7:50 a.m. in the Lubyanka subway station, killing 19 people both on the platform and aboard an incoming train. Numerous others were injured.

      “The blast hit the second carriage of a metro train that stopped at Lubyanka,” Irina Andrianova, a spokeswoman for the emergency ministry, told Reuters.

      About 40 minutes later, another explosion occurred in the second car of a train at the Park Kultury station, killing 14 people, officials said.

      In September 2004, a suicide bomber killed at least 9 other people and wounded more than 50 outside the Rizhskaya subway. In February of that same year, a woman carrying a bomb destroyed another subway car, killing at least 41 people as the train moved between the Paveletskaya and the Avtozavodskaya stations at one of the busiest times of the day.

      The Lubyanka station, where the first explosion occurred, takes its name from the infamous Lubyanka prison that also served as the former headquarters of the K.G.B., the Soviet-era secret police.

    • 2 years ago
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