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| Caucasus |
| Chechen car bombs slaughter at least 25 in Grozny... |
| 2002-12-27 |
| Chechen capital rocked by blasts Two powerful explosions have caused devastation in the Chechen capital Grozny. At least 25 people are dead, Chechen officials say, but the death toll is expected to rise. Correspondents say the blasts appear to be the work of Chechen separatist rebels. One blast was inside the main Moscow-backed Chechen Government building. FoxNews was reporting it was two car bombs. Maybe they drove one inside before booming... If confirmed, this would be the biggest operation by the rebels since they took more than 800 people hostage in a Moscow theatre last October. Vanessa must be so proud! The blast inside the government building occurred at about 1430 (1130 GMT). The second explosion occurred nearby. "There are many dead and injured, as it was a working day and many people were having lunch in the canteen," one of the officials said. That certainly explains why Islamists would want to kill them... Russia's NTV television said the building was almost completely devastated by the blast. The BBC's Stephen Dalziel in Moscow says that it appears that the explosions were caused by bombs planted in trucks, stationed near the building. Footage broadcast by NTV showed bleeding people stumbling out of the rubble. Maskhadov must have been glued to his telly... Russian news agencies said neither the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, nor his deputy Mikhail Babich were in the building. MORE from IslamOnLine: Some 43 people were killed in a bombing attack on the headquarters of the pro-Russian government in the capital Grozny, said the Russian TV Channel 2 Friday, December 27. The Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, however, quoted Interior Ministry sources as saying that 32 people, including civilians and military personnel, were killed in the attack which also left more than 60 others wounded. The Kavkaz Center Internet website quoted an unnamed Chechen leader as saying that the attack was carried out by two fighters from âUnit 29 Martyr Operationsâ, which operates from southern Chechnya. Expended a bit of cannon fodder for the hit, did they? An independent Russian website quoted eyewitnesses as saying that a vehicle loaded with more than one tone of explosives rammed into the building while another vehicle hit the building from the opposite direction. The blast sent five cars parking in front of the building into the air. The Russian independent NTV channel broadcast footage of the scene, adding that the building also came under aerial bombing. That seems unlikely, unless they're referring to mortars... The attackers in a truck and a jeep drove through fencing around the building and went on to strike the building itself, Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Tsakayev as saying. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 UPI says: "Chechen militants claimed responsibility Friday for two suicide bombs that leveled offices of Chechnya's pro-Moscow government and killed at least three dozen people. In a telephone call to the Chechen news agency Kavkaz, a spokesman for the militants said "martyrs" drove the two vehicles, packed with an estimated 1 ton of explosives, and rammed them through the building's defense perimeter to its entrance, according to the Italian daily newspaper La Rupubblica." OK, Vlad, they're all yours. |
| Posted by: Steve 2002-12-27 14:08:33 |