Posted on 05/12/2003 1:42:50 AM PDT by kattracks
A truck bomb ripped through a government compound in northern Chechnya on Monday, killing at least 30 people, the regional administration chief said.
Sultan Ahmetkhanov, the head of the Nadterechny region where the blast occurred, said a truck filled with explosives had damaged part of an administration building and the headquarters of the Federal Security Service in the town of Znamenskoye, as well as about eight residential houses.
At least 30 people were killed and two to three times that number were injured, Akhmetkhanov said. The ITAR-Tass news agency, citing Chechen administration officials, said more than 20 of the injured had been taken to the local hospital.
Chechen administration head Akhmad Kadyrov said at least 16 people were killed, the Interfax news agency reported.
Initial information indicated a truck carrying explosives exploded near the buildings, which were located in a government compound, ITAR-Tass said. The blast left a crater up to 53 feet in diameter and six-feet deep, Akhmetkhanov said.
Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky was heading to the scene, Interfax reported.
In December, a truck-bomb attack on the headquarters of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration in the capital Grozny killed at least 70 people. The truck had passed through numerous checkpoints and the blast exposed the still-fragile state of security even in the most heavily guard part of the war-shattered region.
Kadyrov said the Znamenskoye attack showed that Russian and regional Chechen security services are unable to prevent all Chechen rebel attacks.
"It is necessary to be more alert and responsible, so that no cars with explosives can travel on the territory of the republic," Interfax quoted him as saying.
Northern Chechnya is considered the most stable part of the region. It was the first area to come under the control of Russian forces that entered the republic in 1999, starting the second war in a decade.
Znamenskoye houses a large refugee camp and has served as headquarters for international human rights monitors.
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