Suicide bombers killed 12 people Wednesday in double strikes targeting police in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus, shaking the country just two days after attacks in Moscow left 39 dead. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the latest attack in the North Caucasus region may be linked to the strikes on the Moscow metro by two female suicide bombers, as the authorities moved to prevent a resurgence of militant violence.
Nine police including a local police chief were among the dead in the double attack in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, a region on the Caspian Sea already wracked by an Islamist insurgency. "I do not rule out that the same gang (as in Moscow) was at work here," a stern-looking Putin told a government meeting in televised remarks.
He said it did not matter where the bombings took place or whether victims of those bombings were Orthodox Christians, Muslims or people of other faiths. "This is a crime against Russia," Putin said. Wednesday's first blast was caused by a car occupied by a suicide bomber that blew up when police tried to stop it during a regular check in the town of Kizlyar in Dagestan, officials said. The force of the first blast left a massive crater in the road and reduced surrounding cars to burned-out wrecks, television pictures showed.