ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia – Insurgents set off a bomb Tuesday near a police minibus in breakaway Chechnya after luring the security forces into a trap, killing 14 people, including two children, and wounding more than 20 others, regional officials said.
The attackers set the trap by firing at a corpse left in a stolen police jeep to make the Interior Ministry troops believe a gun attack was taking place and get them to go to the scene, said the head of the Chechen Security Council, Rudnik Dudayev.
“When the security detachment arrived at Znamenskoye, the bomb went off,” he said, according to the Interfax news agency. Earlier, officials had said the attackers opened fire on a vehicle carrying security forces and then set off a bomb when a second vehicle came to help.
Russian news reports citing unidentified officials said one child was killed while riding a bicycle past the scene.
Chechnya’s Moscow-backed President Alu Alkhanov said 14 people had died and more than 20 others were wounded in the attack in the village of Znamenskoye, the Interfax news agency reported.
Alkhanov accused Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev of ordering the attack but insisted the situation was under control.
“Terrorists under Basayev’s command are trying to destabilize the sociopolitical situation in the republic,” he said, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency. “The situation is under the full control of the Chechen leadership.”
The guerrilla attack, one of the bloodiest in recent months, occurred in an area of Chechnya under firm Russian control, again demonstrating Moscow’s inability to end the decade-long separatist insurgency in the mainly Muslim southern province.
Russian forces had withdrawn from Chechnya in 1996, when the first Chechen war against separatist rebels ended in a stalemate. They returned in 1999 and quickly took control of Chechnya’s northern plains, but have been unable to drive rebels from the mountainous south.
TV video showed the twisted and charred metal remains of one vehicle and investigators picking through fragments on the ground nearby.
An official from the Interior Ministry for southern Russia, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his position, said the minibus was carrying Interior Ministry forces.
He said one child was killed, but did not have details.
Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov said the bomb was equivalent to 17.6 pounds of TNT, according to ITAR-Tass.
Dr. Zaina Akherukhanova told The Associated Press by telephone from Znamenskoye that the attack left the town in fear. “There were 20 wounded in our hospital and some wounded were taken to other hospitals. The residents are in panic. Many are leaving the place,” she said.
A truck bomb attack on a government compound in Znamenskoye in May 2003 killed at least 60 people.
Znamenskoye is in northwestern Chechnya, a region that has been under the control of Russian forces since the first months of the second Chechen war.
President Russian news reports citing unidentified officials said one child was killed while riding a bicycle past the scene.
Chechnya’s Moscow-backed President Alu Alkhanov said 14 people had died and more than 20 others were wounded in the attack in the village of Znamenskoye, the Interfax news agency reported.
Alkhanov accused Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev of ordering the attack but insisted the situation was under control.
“Terrorists under Basayev’s command are trying to destabilize the sociopolitical situation in the republic,” he said, according to the RIA-Novosti news agency. “The situation is under the full control of the Chechen leadership.”
The guerrilla attack, one of the bloodiest in recent months, occurred in an area of Chechnya under firm Russian control, again demonstrating Moscow’s inability to end the decade-long separatist insurgency in the mainly Muslim southern province.
Russian forces had withdrawn from Chechnya in 1996, when the first Chechen war against separatist rebels ended in a stalemate. They returned in 1999 and quickly took control of Chechnya’s northern plains, but have been unable to drive rebels from the mountainous south.
TV video showed the twisted and charred metal remains of one vehicle and investigators picking through fragments on the ground nearby.
An official from the Interior Ministry for southern Russia, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his position, said the minibus was carrying Interior Ministry forces.
He said one child was killed, but did not have details.
Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov said the bomb was equivalent to 17.6 pounds of TNT, according to ITAR-Tass.
Dr. Zaina Akherukhanova told The Associated Press by telephone from Znamenskoye that the attack left the town in fear. “There were 20 wounded in our hospital and some wounded were taken to other hospitals. The residents are in panic. Many are leaving the place,” she said.
A truck bomb attack on a government compound in Znamenskoye in May 2003 killed at least 60 people.
Znamenskoye is in northwestern Chechnya, a region that has been under the control of Russian forces since the first months of the second Chechen war.
President Vladimir Putin told a Cabinet meeting the “latest tragic events” showed the need to quickly increase security in the troubled Caucasus region, where violence from Chechnya is increasingly spilling over into neighboring southern provinces.
“We need to do it — and as soon as possible,” he said in televised remarks Vladimir Putin told a Cabinet meeting the “latest tragic events” showed the need to quickly increase security in the troubled Caucasus region, where violence from Chechnya is increasingly spilling over into neighboring southern provinces.
“We need to do it — and as soon as possible,” he said in televised remarks.