| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Woman kills 17 in Russia bus blast
MOSCOW, Russia -- A female suicide bomber has blown up a bus carrying members of Russia's military near Chechnya, killing at least 17 people, air force officials have said. The attacker, wearing a white coat -- the usual uniform for medical personnel -- approached the bus and blew herself up, officials said Thursday. The woman, believed to be a 25-year-old Chechen, threw herself under the bus, a witness was reported as saying. Among the dead were at least eight pilots and aviation personnel. Six people died at the scene and nine others died in hospital, The Associated Press quoted a regional Interior Ministry official as saying. At least 15 people were injured, several are in a critical condition. Investigators are trying to put together what happened, and who the attacker was. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed. Chechens are suspected of being behind the attack. It is the third fatal incident to have happened in the past month. A woman suicide hijacker set off an explosives belt around her waist at a religious festival in the Chechen village of Iliskhan-Yurt on May 14, killing 14 people. While a few days earlier a truck laden with explosives drove into Chechen government buildings in Znamenskoye, the main town in the Nadterechny district, north of Grozny, killing at least 52 people. The latest attack happened at 7:36 a.m. (0336 BST) on the outskirts of Mozdok air base, a major military installation in Russia's North Ossetia province, which borders Chechnya. "When the bus slowed down at a railway pass, the terrorist approached it and blew herself up," Russian Air Force spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky told Interfax news agency. The bus was heading to the air base from a hotel, he added. -- CNN Moscow Bureau Chief Jill Dougherty contributed to this report Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
