
Mobile phone video footage showed the moment of the second blast At least 12 people, including a top local police official, have been killed by two suicide bombings in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan. A car bomb was detonated at about 0830 (0430 GMT) outside the offices of the local interior ministry and the FSB security agency in the town of Kizlyar. Another bomber then blew himself up 20 minutes later as a crowd gathered. Russia is on alert after double suicide bombings on the Moscow Metro on Monday morning, which left 39 people dead. Yet another terrorist act has been committed. I do not rule out that it is one and the same gang at work Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on the security forces to "scrape from the sewers" those responsible for the Moscow attacks. Investigators say they believe the bombers were linked to militants in the North Caucasus. At a government meeting following Wednesday's bombings in Dagestan, Mr Putin condemned the "terrorist act" and said he did "not rule out that it is one and the same gang at work". The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says that although no-one has yet claimed responsibility for either of the attacks, both bear the hallmarks of previous suicide bombings carried out by Islamist militants from the restive region. Last month, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov warned that his fighters' "zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia... the war is coming to their cities". 'Cancerous tumour' In Wednesday's attacks, the first suicide bomber detonated his explosives when police tried to stop his car as he drove into the centre of Kizlyar, Dagestani Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said. ANALYSIS Sarah Rainsford Sarah Rainsford BBC News, Moscow Kizlyar is just a few kilometres from Chechnya - in the very volatile North Caucasus. The region is the focus of an extremist Islamist insurgency - and attacks on Russian police and security forces there are relatively common. Russian officials have blamed insurgents from the North Caucasus for the two bombs that went off in Moscow on Monday. After the latest attack, Dagestan's interior minister ordered police to increase security measures at official buildings and public places nationwide. North Caucasus: At a glance "Traffic police followed the car and almost caught up - at that time the blast hit," he told local television. As police, emergency services personnel and residents gathered at the scene, a suicide bomber wearing a police uniform approached and blew himself up, killing among others the town's chief of police, Col Vitaly Vedernikov, Mr Nurgaliyev added. Mobile phone video footage posted on the internet afterwards showed the moment of the second blast, with officials walking past a damaged building before a loud bang rings out and smoke rises in the distance. A total of nine police officers were among the dead, the investigative committee of Russian prosecutors … [Read more...]













