Posted on 07/05/2003 8:48:35 AM PDT by WisemanRAX
MOSCOW - Two women suicide bombers blew themselves up at a giant rock festival in suburban Moscow on Saturday, killing at least 16 people, Russian officials said. The interior minister said Chechen rebels may have been beind the attack.
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1 hour, 22 minutes ago
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By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW - Two women suicide bombers blew themselves up at a giant rock festival in suburban Moscow on Saturday, killing at least 16 people, Russian officials said. The interior minister said Chechen rebels may have been beind the attack.
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Up to 40,000 spectators, many of them young, were attending the popular annual festival at the Tushino airfield when the explosions went off at two differnt gates. One of the blasts tore off people's clothing and sent garbage flying through the air, said spectator Alexander Yefimov.
The first blast took place after guards stopped a woman at the entrance to the festival and she detonated an explosives-packed belt, the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies reported, citing unnamed law enforcement sources.
Police then directed the audience to leave through the airfield's second gate — and there the second bomb went off, said Rustam Abdulganiyev, a 17-year-old who had been inside the airfield.
"I've never seen anything like it," he said.
Bodies lay splayed on the pavement, surrounded by pools of blood. Emergency response officers covered them with black plastic garbage bags.
Anxious relatives who had heard of the blast on Russian radio and television crowded the entrances but were barred from entering the airfield. Manana Gogoa's son David, 14, was attending the concert with friend. "We don't know anything. We just heard it on TV. They won't tell us anything," she said, weeping.
Helicopters scoured the skies over the field, and ambulances and police trucks streamed in.
Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said that 16 people were killed, not including the bombers, who he said were women. He said suspicions pointed to Chechen rebels. News reports said a passport found at the bombing site identified a Chechen woman.
Chechen rebels have shown an increased penchant for targeting civilians over the past year with suicide-bomb attacks. Fears of terrorism have been high in the Russian capital since last October's seizure of a Moscow theater by scores of Chechen militants, including women strapped with explosives and detonators.
Moscow police spokesman Pavel Klimovsky said Saturday's blasts were set off by two suicide bombers and that both were killed. Remnants of one of the bomber's explosives went off about 20 minutes after the two blasts, which some witnesses mistook for a third bombing, officials said.
Police later discovered another explosive device near one of the entrances to the festival and defused it, said ITAR-Tass.
The one-day festival, called "Krylya" (Wings), is a highly popular summer event for Moscow's youth, featuring many of the country's most renowned bands. The weather Saturday afternoon, cool and partly sunny, was ideal for attracting a large crowd.
"At first I thought it was some really huge firecracker, then I realized it was an explosion," said Vadim Trukshin, who said he was waiting in line to get in when the first bomb went off.
The attack came hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) signed an order setting presidential election in Chechnya (news - web sites) for Oct. 5. The elections are the latest step in Putin's strategy of trying to bring a political resolution in the Caucasus republic even as fighting continues.
But rebel attacks have undercut the Kremlin's effort to portray the situation in the war-shattered region as stabilizing.
In June, a female bomber blew up a bus carrying workers from a Russian air base near Chechnya, killing herself and at least 14 people.
In May, an explosives-laden woman blew herself up in the middle of a crowd of Muslim pilgrims, killing at least 15, in an apparent attempt to kill the Kremlin-backed acting president of Chechnya, Akhmad Kadyrov. Two days before that attack, three suicide bombers detonated a truck loaded with explosives outside a government compound, killing at least 59 people.
During the Moscow theater standoff in October, Chechen militants threatened to blow themselves up and held 800 people hostage for days. Russian special forces ended the standoff by pumping narcotic gas into the theater and then storming in. At least 129 hostages died, almost all from the effects of the gas.
They AREN'T "rebels." They're TERRORISTS.
I see the "religion of peace" is at it again. This one is particularly disgusting because they planned to blow up young people whom they knew would be trying to escape through this gate. These Muslim bastards planned this thing like a general would plan to steer an opposing army into the teeth of an ambush. But these were youths attending a music concert, not an army in uniform and full gear. How sick, how depraved, how utterly dispicable are the animals who planned and carried out this barbaric, inhuman act.
I would assume this concert of young people to be as anti-authoritarian as any of the world's youth, many AGAINST the war in Iraq. Afghanistan maybe too. Anti-Bush maybe too.
This shows terrible strategic tactical mistake of militant Islam by attacking Russia's most advocating. Now the Leftist youth of Russia might (and rightfully so) support the WOT as a whole. Also some mind dead antiwar groups in the USA and EU might get a clue.
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