Suicide bombers killed 12 people yesterday in double strikes targeting police in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus, shaking the country just two days after attacks in Moscow left 39 dead.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the latest attack in the North Caucasus region may be linked to the strikes on the Moscow metro by two female suicide bombers, as the authorities moved to prevent a resurgence of militant violence.
Nine police, including a local police chief, were among the dead in the double attack in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, a region on the Caspian Sea already wracked by an Islamist insurgency.
“I do not rule out that the same gang [as in Moscow] was at work here,” a stern-looking Putin told a government meeting in televised remarks.
He said it did not matter where the bombings took place or whether victims of those bombings were Orthodox Christians, Muslims or people of other faiths.
“This is a crime against Russia,” Putin said.
Yesterday's first blast was caused by a car occupied by a suicide bomber that blew up when police tried to stop it during a regular check in the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan, officials said.
The force of the first blast left a massive crater in the road and reduced surrounding cars to burned-out wrecks, television pictures showed.
After 20 minutes, another blast was triggered by a second suicide bomber wearing a police uniform who approached law enforcement officials working at the scene of the first blast, a spokeswoman for the Dagestani interior ministry said.
Spokesman Nizami Radzhabov said the first blast was caused by explosives the equivalent of 200kg of TNT stuffed into a Niva jeep “in which there was a suicide bomber,” Interfax reported.
The investigative committee of Russian prosecutors said in a statement that 12 people were killed, nine of them police, and 23 were wounded.
Among the dead was local Kizlyar district police chief, Vitaly Vedernikov, it said.
The new attacks were the latest blow to Russian leaders who pledged after Monday's Moscow metro blasts to hunt down and destroy the organizers of the suicide bombings, who they said had links to North Caucasus militant groups.
Muslim Dagestan has been one of the Caucasus regions most troubled by militant violence, along with Chechnya and Ingushetia.
Putin had on Tuesday ordered security forces to snare the masterminds of the metro bombings, saying they should be scraped out from the sewers in language reminiscent of his 1999 promise to strike at rebels in the “outhouse.”
The Kommersant daily quoted an investigation source as saying on Tuesday that militants had recruited 30 potential suicide bombers in recent months, with 21 still at large after nine already blew themselves up.
The Moscow female suicide bombers blew themselves up within 40 minutes of each other in the morning rush hour at stations in the center of the city.
The latest explosions come as Russia buried the first two victims of Monday's blasts, with an increased police presence tangible in the still tense capital.
Police said that a total of 100 bomb alerts had been received in Moscow over the past 24 hours, all of which turned out to be false.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
‘COMING MENACINGLY’: The CDC advised wearing a mask when visiting hospitals or long-term care centers, on public transportation and in crowded indoor venues Hospital visits for COVID-19 last week increased by 113 percent to 41,402, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, as it encouraged people to wear a mask in three public settings to prevent infection. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said weekly hospital visits for COVID-19 have been increasing for seven consecutive weeks, and 102 severe COVID-19 cases and 19 deaths were confirmed last week, both the highest weekly numbers this year. CDC physician Lee Tsung-han (李宗翰) said the youngest person hospitalized due to the disease this year was reported last week, a one-month-old baby, who does not
RSS