Two suicide bombings kill 12 in Russia (Second lead)

MOSCOW - At least 12 people were killed and many more wounded after a series of suicide bombings Wednesday morning in Russia’s North Caucasus region, the Interfax news agency reported, citing Russia’s interior ministry.

The explosions in Kizlyar - one involving a 200-kg explosive device - come two days after twin suicide bomb attacks killed 39 people in Moscow’s subway system, attacks which Russia’s FSB intelligence service blamed on Northern Caucasian terrorist groups.

Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russia’s security council, also linked threats to Russia from the Northern Caucasus and said Russia would do all it could to bring leaders of terrorist groups there to justice, especially Doku Umarov. Russian media released the name of a Chechen alleged to be behind the Moscow attack, along with descriptions of

two accomplices.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin also linked the two attacks, saying the same group was behind both sets of attacks and declaring both attacks, despite the geographical distance between them, to be attacks at the heart of Russia.

“We believe that these attacks were aimed against Russia,” the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

The first blast was carried out by a suicide bomber dressed as a policeman in Kizlyar in the semi-autonomous Russian republic of Dagestan near local offices of the FSB and the interior ministry.

His bomb reportedly weighed in at 200 kg and was set off near a school, reported radio broadcaster Echo Moskvy.

Shortly afterward, a second suicide bomber detonated himself elsewhere in Kizlyar after police stopped his car for a traffic check. Two police officers and a passenger died in that blast. After a crowd gathered at the scene of the crime, another suicide bomber dressed as a policeman detonated himself.

Most of the fatalities in the two attacks were police officers. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev directed Dagestan officials to provide aid to the families of victims.