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From left to right: Khamzat, the commander of the Riyad-us-Saliheen Martyr Brigade; Doku Umarov, the leader of the Caucasus Emirate; and Saifullah, the suicide bomber of the deadly Jan. 24 suicide attack at Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow that killed 35 people. |
Seven policemen and a civilian were killed in a suicide attack today in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, as Muslims celebrated the end of Ramadan. The attack is like many others that have taken place in numerous countries: a suicide bomber detonated his vest while being searched, then a second blast, likely carried out by another bomber, targeted people who were treating those wounded by the first attack. While no group has claimed credit for the attack, the Riyad-us-Saliheen Martyr Brigade, the suicide squad for the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, is the likely culprit. From Reuters:
Eight people, seven of them police, were killed in a suicide attack in Chechnya’s capital Grozny on Tuesday during celebrations at the end of the Muslim festival of Ramadan, a police source told Interfax news agency.
A man detonated an explosive device when a police patrol tried to detain him and a second blast rang out soon afterwards, an unidentified police official told the privately-owned agency.
The explosion killed seven police officers, an emergency services worker and wounded at least 16 people, Interfax added.
The scene of the explosion, in a densely populated district of Grozny 50 meters from a local parliament building, was cordoned off by the police. Residents told Reuters they heard gun shots after the explosions.
It has been more than six months since the Caucasus Emirate executed a suicide attack in the Caucasus. On Feb. 14, a pair of suicide bombers killed a soldier and a policeman during two attacks in the village of Gubden in Dagestan. A female suicide bomber killed a soldier outside a police station, and hours later, another suicide bomber killed a policeman in an attack on a checkpoint.
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