Death Toll in Chechnya Truck Bomb Hits 60

Associated Press | May 17, 2003

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VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia - A young boy wounded by a truck bomb blast in Chechnya died on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 60. Meanwhile, a Russian diplomat called bombings in the war-ravaged region and in Saudi Arabia and Morocco "links in one chain" of attacks by international terrorists.

The 10-year-old boy died of a brain injury he suffered when suicide attackers detonated a truck filled with explosives at the edge of a Moscow-backed government compound in northern Chechnya on Monday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing Chechnya's Health Minister Shakhid Akhmadov.

The Interfax news agency said the boy was 11 and quoted the head of the Chechen district where the attack took place as saying nine victims remained in critical condition.

ITAR-Tass reported that 12 people wounded in Monday's attack and a suicide bombing in Chechnya on Wednesday have been flown to Moscow for treatment. In Wednesday's attack, authorities say a woman detonated explosives strapped to her waist at an Islamic ceremony, killing herself and 17 others.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko linked the attacks in Chechnya to the suicide attacks that killed 28 people and the 13 bombers in Morocco on Friday night and Monday's bombings in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which killed 34 people.

"It is becoming ever more obvious that a terrorist international with al-Qaida at its head is trying to shift to a counterattack against the entire civilized world after the defeat in Afghanistan," Yakovenko said. He said the world must strengthen its fight against terrorism.

Yakovenko echoed President Vladimir Putin, who said Tuesday that attacks in Chechnya and Riyadh bore the same signature. The Kremlin, which has been accused of human rights abuses in Chechnya, is eager to portray its struggle against the rebels as part of an international anti-terror campaign.

Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya in 1996 after a devastating 20-month war, leaving the region in separatist control. They returned in 1999 after rebel attacks in neighboring Dagestan and after about 300 people died in apartment-building explosions that Russian officials blamed on Chechen insurgents.

In the latest violence, five Russian servicemen were killed and 11 wounded in rebel attacks and mine blasts over the previous 24 hours, an official in Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration said on condition of anonymity Saturday. Separately, one Chechen riot policeman was killed and two wounded by a mine in the capital Grozny. On Friday, masked gunmen abducted the deputy chief of the police patrol service in Grozny and a sergeant, the official said.

[Free the USA]

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