Police leaders respond to listeners' calls during a broadcast of 'The Cops Show' in Kirkuk, Iraq, Monday, Aug. 15, 2005. This weekly television reality show featuring Kirkuk officers in action is the first of its kind in the country and is breaking new ground in Iraqi television. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)
Police leaders respond to listeners' calls during a broadcast of 'The Cops Show' in Kirkuk, Iraq, Monday, Aug. 15, 2005.This weekly television reality show featuring Kirkuk officers in action is the first of its kind in the country and is breaking new ground in Iraqi television. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)
The USS Kearsarge leaves the Red Sea port of Aqaba in Jordan, 19 August 2005. Jordanian police detained two Egyptians suspected of involvement in a rocket attack on US warships moored off the southern port of Aqaba, a day after arresting an Iraqi, security sources said.(AFP/HO/File/Abraham Faroujian)
Iraqis look at the banner reading 'Islam is our constitution' in english and arabic, in predominately Sunni city of Ramadi, 113 kilometers (75 miles) west of Baghdad, Sunday, Aug. 21, 2005. Sunni Arabs warned they will reject the new constitution if Shiites and Kurds push it through parliament without Sunni consent. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A vehicle that was damaged in a blast in Paghman, a resort area located some 20 km (12 miles) west of the Afghan capital Kabul, is seen in this August 21, 2005 image taken from television footage. Two U.S. embassy officials were hurt by a roadside bomb that hit their convoy near Kabul on Sunday, a spokesman said. AFGHANISTAN OUT (REUTERS TV/Tolo TV/Reuters)
Neema Suratgar Formule, deputy of the Afghan Basketball Federation, member of the Asia Olympic committee and a candidate for upcoming parliamentary elections in Afghanistan, holds a tennis racket at an international club in Kabul August 21, 2005. Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Friday urged candidates in next month's parliamentary and provincial polls to work for national unity and promised that his government would not interfere in the vote. REUTERS /Zohra Bensemra
A US soldier of Ironhawk Troops, 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment walks beside a highway during a cache explosives searching mission on the outskirts of Baghdad. Senior US politicians sparred over America's military presence in Iraq as lawmakers in Baghdad struggled to meet a second deadline to craft a new constitution.(AFP/Liu Jin)
US soldiers search a suspected chemical weapons factory in Mosul. Iraqi politicians warned of political turmoil after failing to meet a deadline on the country's new constitution, but Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and US officials sought to downplay the crisis.(AFP/Mujahed Mohammed)
A U.S. soldier takes photos of a suspected chemical weapons factory in northern Iraq city of Mosul August 15, 2005. U.S. troops said they discovered the suspected chemical weapons factory containing over 1000 gallons of toxic chemical during a raid on Monday. Military officials said they believed the chemicals were being produced to be used in attacks on U.S. and Iraqi security forces. REUTERS/Namir Noor-Eldeen
Police officers stand near the covered bodies of a colleague killed by a bomb explosion in downtown Makhachkala, the capital of the troubled Caspian Sea region of Dagestan, Saturday, Aug. 20, 2005. A remote-controlled bomb in Makhachkala killed at least three police officers and wounded several more, officials said Saturday. Near-daily attacks on police and authorities in Dagestan have raised fears that violence is spreading from neighboring Chechnya, where Russian forces have been battling separatist rebels. Some of the violence is believed to be linked to criminal gangs.(AP Photo/ News Team, Sergei Rasulov)
Southern Russian Bomb Blast Kills 3 Police
By ARSEN MOLLAYEV, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 21, 1:33 AM ET
MAKHACHKALA, Russia - A bomb denonated by remote control killed at least three police officers on patrol in Dagestan on Saturday, the latest violence to hit the troubled Russian region amid continuing fears about spreading violence in the Caucasus.
The bomb exploded Saturday afternoon as a four-man patrol walked past a grove of trees along a downtown street in Makhachkala, the capital of the Caspian Sea region, said city police Lt. Col. Akhmed Magomedov.
An Associated Press reporter saw two dead bodies with police uniforms lying on the street as armed police, firefighters and paramedics rushed to the scene. Dazed residents watched as workers swept broken glass from the street.
Two officers died at the scene, and one died en route to the hospital, officials said. A fourth officer was hospitalized in serious condition.
"I was walking by the fence, and suddenly I heard the explosion. I ran up and saw four police men on the ground. Two of them were dead," Timur Aliyev said.
NTV showed footage of a partially collapsed blue fence and a blue van with its windows blown out.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
Near-daily attacks on police and authorities in Dagestan have raised fears that violence is spreading from neighboring Chechnya. Since the beginning of the year, a series of explosions has killed more than 30 police and security officers and wounded scores of others in Dagestan.
Some blame Islamic militants working with Chechen rebels, while others say the violence could be rooted in rivalry between the region's more than 100 ethnic groups or among feuding criminal gangs.
Last month, a radio-controlled bomb tore into a truck carrying federal Interior Ministry soldiers outside a bath house in Makhachkala, killing at least 11 troops and wounding over 20 other people, including civilians.
A group calling itself Islamic Jamaat of Dagestan "Shariat" claimed responsibility for that explosion and promised more attacks on what it called "Russian occupiers."
Makhachkala is 1,000 miles south of Moscow.
Chechnya, to the west of Dagestan, remains plagued by violence and rampant abductions nearly six years after Russian forces re-entered the province to end a separatist insurgency there.