Posted on 07/05/2003 6:12:10 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
At least 20 people died, and many more were seriously injured after two female suicide bombers blew themselves up at a rock concert being held at a Moscow airfield on Saturday, news agencies reported.
Meanwhile, a new explosion hit the city, agencies are quoting security officials as saying. The new explosion comes less than two hours after the concert blast. However, it has not been confirmed by the Emergencies Ministry.
Three explosions hit the Tushino airfield in north-west Moscow where around 40,000 people had gathered to celebrate the Krylya (wings) festival -- a popular summer event for young music fans in Moscow, Interfax news agency said quoting sources in the Interior Ministry and police.
The two women blew themselves up at a ticket booth at the entrance to the concert after police prevented them from entering the site, ITAR-TASS said.
A third blast went off at a nearby market, the FSB security services told news agencies.
Interfax quoted police as saying the death toll stood at 17, with 22 people hospitalisd in serious condition with shrapnel wounds. The bombs were packed with at least half-a-kilogram of explosives each, police said.
The concert organisers told ITAR-TASS around 40,000 people were attending the annual event.
President Vladimir Putin was immediately informed of the blasts and the state prosecutor's office launched an investigation into "terrorism," Interfax said.
Female suicide bombers carried out a series of kamikaze attacks that killed nearly 100 people in the breakaway republic of Chechnya in May.
Most of the Chechens who held some 800 people hostage in a Moscow theatre for three days in October were also women.
That attack brought the war in Chechnya to the heart of Russian capital for the first time since a series of fatal apartment blasts in August 1999 that prompted Putin to send troops back into the breakaway republic.
Russian troops have been fighting separatist rebels in the mainly Muslim republic ever since.
Daily battles and attacks continue despite Putin's declaration that the war has ended as a result of a peace plan and a constitutional referendum he launched in March.
Rebels appear to be following through on a pledge to step up attacks to disrupt the outcome of that referendum, in which Chechens approved a decision that their republic would remain within the Russian Federation.
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