Three killed in militant attack on Chechen parliament
By IANSTuesday, October 19, 2010
Grozny, Oct 19 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Three people were killed and 17 injured Tuesday morning when militants attacked the parliament of Russia’s republic of Chechnya, authorities said.
“At around 8.45 a.m. three militants opened fire at parliamentary security guards,” Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov said, adding that two police officers and a parliamentary administrative manager were killed.
Three militants were also killed in the ensuing special operation, he said.
Investigators said 17 people, including six police officers, were injured.
A police source earlier told RIA Novosti that the attack began when a vehicle carrying terrorists drove in with cars carrying lawmakers.
He added that a suicide bomber had blown himself up while the other militants headed toward parliament.
The brazen militant attack on the Chechen parliament was the second large-scale terrorist incident in the republic in recent months. In August, a suicide squad launched a massive attack on Kadyrov’s home village of Tsentroi.
Chechnya, which saw two brutal separatist wars in the 1990s and early 2000s, has seen relative calm in recent years under Kadyrov, a former militant turned Kremlin ally whom critics have accused of human rights abuses.
–IANS/RIA Novosti
