Who is responsible for the Moscow Bombings?
See how world media report mixed stories.
Moscow Bombings: Are Islamist Rebels Behind Them?
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB agent who later became head of the FSB, has overseen several brutal campaigns against the Islamic separatists, starting with the second Chechen war in 1999 that established his popularity in Russia as an unflinching leader. On Monday, he warned of a new crackdown against those responsible for the bombings.
"I am certain that law-enforcement agencies will do everything to find the criminals and bring them to justice. The terrorists will be destroyed," Putin said in televised remarks. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, meanwhile, ordered police to tighten security across the country and urged people to stay calm. "It's absolutely clear that these kinds of acts are well-planned and intended to cause mass shock, to destabilize the country and the society," Medvedev said.
The 1999 Chechen war was precipitated by a series of deadly apartment bombings in Russian cities, including Moscow, and human-rights activists have warned that new terrorist attacks could lead to more military campaigns in Chechnya or the other violence-wracked parts of the North Caucasus — Ingushetia and Dagestan. The insurgents' leader, a warlord named Doku Umarov, renewed his pledge last month to bring "holy war" to Russia's cities and industrial centers in an effort to carve out an Islamic state. "Blood will no longer be limited to our cities and towns. The war is coming to their cities," Umarov said in an interview posted Feb. 14 on the separatist website www.kavkazcenter.com. "If the Russians think this war is being waged on television screens, somewhere in the far-off Caucasus ... then God willing, we are about to show them that this war is coming to their homes." The government has faced criticism for failing to heed his threats, even after he took responsibility for the bombing of a train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg in November that killed 27 people.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1976117,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0jnwS1mwj
'We're not behind Moscow bombs': Islamist group
By Thomas Grove, Reuters March 31, 2010
ISTANBUL- A militant Islamist separatist group led by a prominent Chechen rebel denied responsibility on Wednesday for bombings that killed 39 people in two Moscow metro stations."We did not carry out the attack in Moscow, and we don’t know who did it," Shemsettin Batukaev, a spokesman for the Caucasus Emirate organisation, told Reuters by telephone in Turkey.
The spokesman said the group planned attacks on economic targets inside Russia, but not against civilians. Its leader, Doku Umarov, vowed last month to spread a Caucasian insurgency to Russian cities.The Caucusus Emirate aims to create a pan-Caucasus, sharia-based state separate from Russia. Security analysts have named it as a potential suspect in Monday’s attacks, which Russian authorities have blamed on female suicide bombers with connections to the volatile North Caucasus region.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for Moscow’s worst bomb attack in six years.
"Of course we plan on attacking Russian economic targets, but our plans do not include attacks on people," said Batukaev, who lives in Istanbul and acts as the group’s foreign representative.He said he also did not know who was behind two bombings in Dagestan that killed 12 people on Wednesday, but did not deny the possibility that his organisation was involved.
The bombings highlight problems Russia has faced in trying to stem rising violence in the North Caucasus insurgency, which is likely to be at the heart of a 2012 presidential election.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news...lamist+group/2748182/story.html#ixzz0jnwolKAz
Islamist Chechen rebels claim responsibility for Moscow attacks
Last update - Reuters - 22:46 31/03/2010
Chechen rebels claimed responsibility on Wednesday for two suicide bombings that killed 39 people in the Moscow metro and threatened further attacks in the Russian heartland.
In a video on the Islamist rebel website Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov said he ordered the Moscow attacks. The video was posted just hours after two suicide bombers killed at least 12 people in Russia's North Caucasus. The suicide bombings, which have killed at least 50 people and injured another 100 in less than three days, have stirred fears of a major bombing campaign against Russian cities by Islamist insurgents.
Umarov, Russia's most wanted guerrilla who calls himself the "Emir of the Caucasus Emirate", said that he had ordered the twin suicide bombings in Moscow to "destroy infidels". "Both of these operations were carried out on my command and will not be the last," said Umarov, dressed in combat gear.
"You Russians only see the war on television and hear it on the radio." The bearded 45-year-old sat on the ground in what looked like a clearing in a wood.
Read More: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1160267.html
See how world media report mixed stories.
Moscow Bombings: Are Islamist Rebels Behind Them?
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB agent who later became head of the FSB, has overseen several brutal campaigns against the Islamic separatists, starting with the second Chechen war in 1999 that established his popularity in Russia as an unflinching leader. On Monday, he warned of a new crackdown against those responsible for the bombings.
"I am certain that law-enforcement agencies will do everything to find the criminals and bring them to justice. The terrorists will be destroyed," Putin said in televised remarks. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev, meanwhile, ordered police to tighten security across the country and urged people to stay calm. "It's absolutely clear that these kinds of acts are well-planned and intended to cause mass shock, to destabilize the country and the society," Medvedev said.
The 1999 Chechen war was precipitated by a series of deadly apartment bombings in Russian cities, including Moscow, and human-rights activists have warned that new terrorist attacks could lead to more military campaigns in Chechnya or the other violence-wracked parts of the North Caucasus — Ingushetia and Dagestan. The insurgents' leader, a warlord named Doku Umarov, renewed his pledge last month to bring "holy war" to Russia's cities and industrial centers in an effort to carve out an Islamic state. "Blood will no longer be limited to our cities and towns. The war is coming to their cities," Umarov said in an interview posted Feb. 14 on the separatist website www.kavkazcenter.com. "If the Russians think this war is being waged on television screens, somewhere in the far-off Caucasus ... then God willing, we are about to show them that this war is coming to their homes." The government has faced criticism for failing to heed his threats, even after he took responsibility for the bombing of a train traveling from Moscow to St. Petersburg in November that killed 27 people.
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1976117,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0jnwS1mwj
'We're not behind Moscow bombs': Islamist group
By Thomas Grove, Reuters March 31, 2010
ISTANBUL- A militant Islamist separatist group led by a prominent Chechen rebel denied responsibility on Wednesday for bombings that killed 39 people in two Moscow metro stations."We did not carry out the attack in Moscow, and we don’t know who did it," Shemsettin Batukaev, a spokesman for the Caucasus Emirate organisation, told Reuters by telephone in Turkey.
The spokesman said the group planned attacks on economic targets inside Russia, but not against civilians. Its leader, Doku Umarov, vowed last month to spread a Caucasian insurgency to Russian cities.The Caucusus Emirate aims to create a pan-Caucasus, sharia-based state separate from Russia. Security analysts have named it as a potential suspect in Monday’s attacks, which Russian authorities have blamed on female suicide bombers with connections to the volatile North Caucasus region.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for Moscow’s worst bomb attack in six years.
"Of course we plan on attacking Russian economic targets, but our plans do not include attacks on people," said Batukaev, who lives in Istanbul and acts as the group’s foreign representative.He said he also did not know who was behind two bombings in Dagestan that killed 12 people on Wednesday, but did not deny the possibility that his organisation was involved.
The bombings highlight problems Russia has faced in trying to stem rising violence in the North Caucasus insurgency, which is likely to be at the heart of a 2012 presidential election.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news...lamist+group/2748182/story.html#ixzz0jnwolKAz
Islamist Chechen rebels claim responsibility for Moscow attacks
Last update - Reuters - 22:46 31/03/2010
Chechen rebels claimed responsibility on Wednesday for two suicide bombings that killed 39 people in the Moscow metro and threatened further attacks in the Russian heartland.
In a video on the Islamist rebel website Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov said he ordered the Moscow attacks. The video was posted just hours after two suicide bombers killed at least 12 people in Russia's North Caucasus. The suicide bombings, which have killed at least 50 people and injured another 100 in less than three days, have stirred fears of a major bombing campaign against Russian cities by Islamist insurgents.
Umarov, Russia's most wanted guerrilla who calls himself the "Emir of the Caucasus Emirate", said that he had ordered the twin suicide bombings in Moscow to "destroy infidels". "Both of these operations were carried out on my command and will not be the last," said Umarov, dressed in combat gear.
"You Russians only see the war on television and hear it on the radio." The bearded 45-year-old sat on the ground in what looked like a clearing in a wood.
Read More: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1160267.html
