Suicide Bomber kills 41 on russian train

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By Alex Rodriguez
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published December 6, 2003

MOSCOW -- A suicide bomber detonated a powerful explosion on a commuter train outside war-ravaged Chechnya that killed 41 people and injured nearly 200 Friday, an attack authorities said was aimed at casting a pall over Russia as it prepares to elect a new parliament Sunday.

It marked the second attack on the train line in three months and raised to 288 the number of people killed in such attacks in Russia in the past year. All but six were killed in suicide bombings.




As in the other attacks, Russian authorities believe guerrillas fighting to break Chechnya off from Russia were responsible for Friday's explosion.

The blast occurred shortly before 8 a.m. Moscow time just outside the southern Russian city of Yessentuki, about 100 miles west of the Chechen border. The force of the explosion tore the roof and sides off the train's second car and flung bodies of passengers away from the train.

Alexander Sots, a passenger in the fifth car, said panic ensued as the train rolled to a stop about 500 yards from the Yessentuki station. He ran to the second car to help but "as I approached I saw I could do nothing," he said.

"I saw many people wounded and killed--many of them young men and students," Sots said in a telephone interview. "I heard many people screaming for help, most with blood on their faces and clothes."

Three women and a man, who was the bomber, carried out the attack, said Russian Federal Security Service Director Nikolai Patrushev. Two of the women jumped off the train moments before the blast. The man, who was killed in the explosion, was found with grenades attached to his leg, Patrushev said.The third woman was seriously injured and unlikely to live.

No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Russian Justice Minister Yuri Chaika blamed Chechen guerrillas. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the attack "undoubtedly an attempt to destabilize the situation shortly before the parliamentary elections."

Russians go to the polls Sunday to elect lawmakers to the country's 450-seat parliament, the Duma. The pro-Putin United Russia Party is expected to strengthen its control over parliament with Sunday's election.

"I am confident [the attackers] won't succeed," Putin said. "Russian citizens won't stand for this. International terrorism, which has presented a challenge to many countries in the world, continues to remain a serious threat to our country as well. It's a cruel, serious, perfidious enemy."

Russia's Interior Minister, Boris Gryzlov, vowed to track down the planners of the attack: "The ground will burn under their feet. These animals will never be able to feel safe."

Chechen guerrillas fighting to break away the small southern republic of Chechnya have stepped up attacks this year, increasingly turning to suicide bombings as a tactic. Many of the suicide bombers have been women whose husbands or brothers have been killed during the republic's bloody separatist conflict with Russia.

In July, two female suicide bombers killed themselves and 15 other people when they detonated belts packed with explosives at a rock festival on the outskirts of Moscow. The last suicide attack before Friday's blast occurred in August, when a bomber blew up an explosives-laden truck at a military hospital in the city of Mozdok, just outside Chechnya, killing 50 people.

The conflict in Chechnya has raged for much of the past decade, killing thousands of Chechen civilians and turning the republic's capital, Grozny, into a wasteland of ruined buildings. Putin has sought to disentangle Russia from the Chechen conflict by gradually handing over responsibility for fighting the war to Chechens.

In an Oct. 5 election that most people believe was orchestrated by the Kremlin, pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov was elected president of the republic. He is building a private army and has vowed to return order to the war-weary republic.

Putin's plan excludes any negotiations with separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, who was Chechnya's elected president during the republic's de facto independence between 1997 and 1999. Maskhadov has denounced recent terrorist attacks in Moscow and southern Russia, though the Kremlin regards him as a terrorist and seeks his capture.

On Friday, Maskhadov denied any involvement in the attack.

"We repeat that the Chechen government is guided by the principles of international humanitarian law," he said in a statement. "We therefore condemn any acts of violence that directly or indirectly target the civilian population anywhere in the world."

Most experts believe Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev is behind the spate of attacks and suicide bombings over the past year. Basayev has said he masterminded the takeover of a theater in Moscow last year that ended in the deaths of 129 hostages.

In September, a blast on the same commuter train line killed six people and wounded nearly 90. In that attack, two bombs were planted on the tracks and detonated by remote control. Many of the passengers were college students on their way back to school after summer break.

On Friday, the train left the station at Kislovodsk filled with students and Russian commuters heading to jobs in southern cities and towns along the route, including Yessentuki, Pyatigorsk and Mineralniye Vody. Russian authorities said police officers are stationed on the train as part of routine security. However, it was unclear what other security measures were put in place after the September attack.

Sots, who was not injured Friday, was also on the train that was attacked in September.

"People are going to start to become afraid to travel," the 43-year-old retired colonel said. "They'll say, `OK, I survived today, but what about tomorrow?'"