Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

[Federate]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

Thats probably exactly what the terrorists want. It doesnt matter how big the system is-trained dogs for sniffing out bombs are very effective and relatively cheap. Electronic sniffers are more expencive but not sure just how effective they are (never heard of anyone successfully smuggling explosives wo setting it of though).

The problem is that public transit system are vast and very fast paced (unlike airports) and always crowded so it is very hard to stop them all. Even if say they manage to catch a bomber at the gates, this person can still just detonate it on the spot and you will still get 20 people dead around you.

Doku Umarov in the past already claimed he is bringing the war to Moscow's streets. What Putin must do is not use the Russian army directly in the North Caucasus but train local Chechen police forces with puppets as leaders (the puppets are there already) to quash it at home.

[Haykakan]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

Unfortunately, it is very hard to prevent these attacks. Moscow's metro is the 2nd largest in the world with 9 million users every day. This will always remain a weak spot. The only way to stop these attacks is to shift the war back to Chechnya and Doku Umarov's so-called "Islamic emirate".

Thats probably exactly what the terrorists want. It doesnt matter how big the system is-trained dogs for sniffing out bombs are very effective and relatively cheap. Electronic sniffers are more expencive but not sure just how effective they are (never heard of anyone successfully smuggling explosives wo setting it of though).

[Federate]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

Two Armenians injured in Moscow blast
16:44 / 03/29/2010

Two Armenians are among the injured in Moscow subway blast, spokesman for the RA Embassy in Russian Federation Gevorg Minasyan told NEWS.am.

According to him, Hasmik Martirosyan (1992) is presently in #36 Moscow hospital. “She got shrapnel wounds in the chest, but the doctors esteem her health state as stable.”

Another injured Anna Porkashyan (1955) is in #64 Moscow hospital. No details are available at the moment. Gevorg Minasyan informed that he intends to clarify the details in the hospitals in person, followed by RA Ambassador to Russia Oleg Yesayan.

Minasyan underlined that embassy does its utmost to get updated information about injured and victims.

As reported previously, Monday morning, two powerful blasts rocked Lubyanka and Park Kultury subway stations of Moscow. According to Ministry of Emergency Situations, 35 people were killed and another 65 injured in two attacks carried out by female suicide bombers.

A.G.

http://news.am/en/news/17805.html

[Federate]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

The attacks on the metro system can be prevented by bomb sniffing equipment or dogs. RIP

Unfortunately, it is very hard to prevent these attacks. Moscow's metro is the 2nd largest in the world with 9 million users every day. This will always remain a weak spot. The only way to stop these attacks is to shift the war back to Chechnya and Doku Umarov's so-called "Islamic emirate".

[Haykakan]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

The attacks on the metro system can be prevented by bomb sniffing equipment or dogs. RIP

[ashot24]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

The death toll is now at 38 and could rise far higher given the number of people injured. Short of deporting all Chechens from Russia and preventing their entry entirely to the country. Sadly I fail to see how the Russians can prevent similar future atrocities.

Sadly and tragically, you can never prevent such things from happening.
I don't know what these terrorists think they will achieve by attacking innocent people on metros, operas, and (what deeply affects me even though 7 years have passed) schools. The most likely is that this is an act from the Chechen terrorists, however...they have high experience and know that nothing will happen, no matter what horrible acts can they start. Do they really think they can scare the Russian government? Even saying it sounds stupid.

Do they really think this is the way to achieve independence? No, this goes far beyond the desire for independence, this has turned into a campaign to get "revenge" for the casualties their people suffered during the Chechen wars, but I ask them Are little children, teenagers, adults, people that may have never been to Chechnya or heard about it in their lives, guilty for your losses? If you want to kill so bad, kill the ones who inflicted that pain in you, kill the politicians and the criminals for such tragedies, you're well aware of who they are...but all these people who have died because of your hideous acts, what was their crime?

I hope you're judged by your God, whatever He may be, for the dozens of innocent lives you have taken with you, because I am sure for you awaits no heaven or eternal rest, for such thing awaits the ones who are human, but you are no human anymore.

[retro]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

The death toll is now at 38 and could rise far higher given the number of people injured. Short of deporting all Chechens from Russia and preventing their entry entirely to the country. Sadly I fail to see how the Russians can prevent similar future atrocities.

[ashot24]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

March 30 Declared National Day of Mourning in Russia
17:50 • 29.03.10


March 30 will be marked in Russia as a National Day of Mourning for victims of terrorist attacks, in the name of the explosions that took place in the Moscow metro system early this morning, said Moscow City Hall press spokesperson Sergey Tsoi.

According to Tsoi, all flags will be flying at half-mast tomorrow and entertainment events will be postponed.

Earlier, media reported that two explosions took place at central Lubyanka station and at Park Kultury about 40 minutes later. Preliminary findings revealed the explosions were the work of female suicide bombers who Russian officials consider to be from the North Caucasuses. At least 37 people have been killed and many more wounded.

http://tert.am/en/news/2010/03/29/grief/

[retro]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

After a lull of several years, the spectre of militant attacks has returned to haunt Moscow and fuelled fears of a holy war in the heart of Russia by Islamist rebels from its Northern Caucasus region.

Thirty-seven people were killed Monday in twin suicide attacks carried out by female bombers in the morning rush hour, officials said, in the worst such attack in the Russian capital for more than five years.

The head of the Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, said they appeared linked to Northern Caucasus militant groups waging an insurgency against the pro-Kremlin local authorities.

The bombings came after warnings published on militant websites by Islamist leader Doku Umarov from the Caucasus republic of Chechnya that Moscow would be the rebels' next target.

Alexei Malashenko, an expert at the Carnegie Centre, said the bombings could signal the beginning of a jihad, or holy war in the heart of Russia.
"I would not rule out that they have started the jihad that they have been announcing recently quite regularly since the end of December," Malashenko told AFP.

Umarov, the self-proclaimed head of the "Caucasus Emirate," aims to establish Sharia rule over the whole region, including Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan and North Ossetia.

He was an ally of Chechen rebel chief Shamil Basayev -- killed by Russian forces in 2006 -- who claimed responsibility for attacks including the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis in which more than 330 people died, many children.

The US IntelCenter organisation -- which monitors statements by militant groups -- also pointed to Umarov's involvement.

"The most likely group behind the twin suicide bombings in the Moscow subway today is the Caucasus Emirate led by Doku Umarov," the agency said in a statement.

In an interview published February 14 on the Kavkazcenter website, an unofficial mouthpiece for rebels, Umarov warned that rebels would move their actitivites from the Caucasus to central Russia. "The blood will not just be spilled in our towns and villages. The war will come to their towns," Umarov said.

Amid an insurgency across the troubled North Caucasus, rebels regularly target police stations and local officials in shootings and suicide bombings that are barely mentioned by Russian state media.
....

http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=a1117

[Eddo211]

Re: Deadly double suicide bombing in Moscow railway...37 dead as others panic

Moscow Metro hit by deadly suicide bombings

Page last updated at 12:07 GMT, Monday, 29 March 2010 13:07 UK

At least 37 people have been killed after two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow Metro trains in the morning rush hour, officials say.

Twenty-four died in the first blast at 0756 (0356 GMT) as a train stood at the central Lubyanka station, beneath the offices of the FSB intelligence agency.

About 40 minutes later, a second explosion ripped through a train at Park Kultury, leaving another 13 dead.

The FSB said it was likely a group from the North Caucasus was responsible.

The BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow says no group has yet said it carried out the attacks, but past suicide bombings in the capital have been carried out by or blamed on Islamist rebels fighting for independence in Chechnya.

In February, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov said "the zone of military operations will be extended to the territory of Russia... the war is coming to their cities".

At an emergency meeting with senior officials, President Dmitry Medvedev vowed to uphold the "policy of suppressing terror and the fight against terrorism".

"We will continue operations against terrorists without compromises and to the end," he said.

Federal security forces have scored a series of successes against militants in the North Caucasus in recent weeks. In February, at least 20 insurgents were killed in an operation by troops in Ingushetia.

'Panic'

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

The station, on both the busy Sokolnicheskaya and Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya lines, 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. A door near the passage way arched, was ripped out and a cloud of dust came down on the escalator," an eyewitness named Alexei told Rossiya 24 TV channel.

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

The second blast at Park Kultury, which is six stops away from Lubyanka on the Sokolnicheskaya line, came at 0838 (0438 GMT). It struck at 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.

"People were yelling like hell," he said. "There was a lot of smoke and within about two minutes everything was covered in smoke."

More than 100 people were injured in the two attacks, 30 of them badly, officials said.

In a meeting with President Medvedev, FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said its investigators believed the attacks had been carried out by "terrorist groups related to the North Caucasus".



"This is likely to be our main conclusion, because 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.

Citing a preliminary forensic report, Mr Bortnikov added that the devices had been made with the powerful explosive, hexogen, which is more commonly known as RDX.

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, he said. The devices were filled with chipped iron rods and screws for shrapnel.

Federal prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into "suspected acts of terrorism".

'Heinous crime'

Parts of the Metro system have been closed down as a precaution, and 700 interior ministry troops have been deployed on the streets.

"The whole city is a mess, people are calling each other, the operators can't cope with such a huge number of calls at a time," said Olga, a BBC News website reader in Moscow. "Those who witnessed the tragedy can't get over the shock."

President Medvedev asked officials to increase security on the public transport system nationwide. "What was being done needs to be substantially strengthened," he said. "Look at this problem on the scale of the state, not only as it applies to a particular type of transport and a particular city."

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who has cut short a visit to the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, said a crime that was "terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner" had been committed.

"I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed," he added.

US President Barack Obama condemned the "outrageous acts", and said the American people stood united with the people of Russia in opposition to violent extremism.

The EU's foreign affairs chief, Baroness Ashton, also condemned the bombings and offered the bloc's "solidarity to the Russian authorities". Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen pledged its commitment to fight with Russia against terrorism.

The co-ordinated attacks were the deadliest in Moscow since February 2004, when at least 39 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 Chechen rebels.

In November, Doku Umarov said his Caucasian Mujahadeen had carried out a bombing that killed 26 people on board an express train travelling from Moscow to Russia's second city of St Petersburg.

The attack came six months after President Medvedev declared an end to Russia's "counter-terrorism operations" in Chechnya, in a bid to "further normalise the situation" after 15 years of conflict that claimed more than 100,000 lives and left it in ruins.

Despite this, the mainly Muslim republic continues to be plagued by violence, and over the past two years Islamist militants have stepped up attacks in neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8592190.stm