Three Killed, 34 Hurt in Chechnya Car Bomb Blasts

26/03/2001| IslamWeb

[Russia, which lost more than 3,000 servicemen in the latest Chechen campaign, has tried to form police units out of loyal Chechens to help restore order. Read photo caption below].


MOSCOW (Islamweb, Agencies) - Three people were killed and 34 injured when three car bombs exploded in the Chechnya region Tuesday, officials said.
Chechnya's prosecutor, Viktor Dakhnov, told NTV television the cars were parked near a courthouse and police station in the city of Gudermes, seat of the war-ravaged republic's pro-Moscow administration.
He said the dead were one policeman and two civilians.
A spokesman for the Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin, who, in 1999 as Russian prime minister, launched the military campaign to return Chechnya to Moscow's fold, had been informed of the bombings and was keeping an eye on the investigation.
A military spokesman told ORT television that a fourth bomb was primed to go off later, but police disarmed it by firing at the car the device had been planted in.
RIA news agency quoted Russia's interior ministry as saying two men had been detained in connection with the blasts.
The agency quoted local prosecutors as saying the second and third bombs were timed to strike those helping to deal with the effects of the initial explosion.
It said most casualties came when shrapnel from the later blasts hit people trying to put out a fire caused by the first.
Dakhnov said most of the 34 hurt were policemen. He told RIA the attacks were part of a separatist campaign to paralyze the pro-Moscow Chechen police force.
Russia, which lost more than 3,000 servicemen in the latest Chechen campaign, has tried to form police units out of loyal Chechens to help restore order.
The Chechen Resistance, who remain largely in control in the mountainous south and move with ease in the towns after dusk, have launched a military campaign against pro-Moscow Chechen officials, killing scores of collaborators.
Despite daily air raids against the Resistance, Russian troops have failed to kill or capture their main leaders or flush Resistance groups out of the mountains.
An upsurge of violence across Chechnya over the past months has undermined Moscow's claims that life there was returning to normal.
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PHOTO CAPTION

A Chechen serviceman of special forces unit stands on guard in Chechen capital Grozny, May 26, 2001. Russian authorities say that they control most of Chechnya, but rebels continue to perform their operations against Russian military. REUTERS/Adlan Khasanov.
- May 28 12:49 PM ET
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