Sunday, July 27th, 2003

Chechen suicide bomber injures 1

By SERGEI VENYAVSKY, Associated Press


ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - A female suicide bomber blew herself up Sunday near a base of a security force commanded by a son of Chechnya's Kremlin-appointed administration chief, wounding a woman who was nearby, officials said.

The attack, which occurred southeast of the provincial capital of Grozny, appeared aimed at the administration chief Akhmad Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, Chechnya's Emergency Situations Minister Ruslan Avtayev said. He said one woman was lightly wounded in the attack.

The attacker approached a building where Ramzan Kadyrov was reviewing members of the force, and guards thought she looked suspicious. "They asked her to halt, and at that moment the explosion rang out," Samail Saraliyev, a spokesman for Akhmad Kadyrov, said on NTV television.

Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bomber was about 20 years old, the Interfax news agency reported, citing unidentified sources in the regional Interior Ministry. Authorities were searching for another woman after hearing reports that a second bomber had been planning an attack on the younger Kadyrov, according to Interfax.

Female suicide bombers have carried out several attacks in Chechnya and Moscow in recent months.

Ramzan Kadyrov is distrusted by many Chechens who are wary of the power of his armed group and fear it is unlikely to be held accountable for its actions.

Akhmad Kadyrov spoke out against Russia during the first of its two wars against Chechen separatists in the past decade but later aligned himself with the Kremlin, which in 2000 appointed him to head the regional administration. He became its acting president in a March referendum in which voters approved a new constitution and plans for regional elections.

Akhmad Kadyrov is widely expected to run in Chechnya's presidential election, scheduled for Oct. 5, but he has not announced his candidacy. Critics have suggested the election is an attempt to legitimize his control, but the Kremlin insists it will not back any candidate.

Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya following a devastating 1994- 1996 war that left separatists in charge, but the forces returned in 1999 after Chechnya-based militants invaded a neighboring region. The Kremlin also blamed rebels for apartment-building bombings that killed 300 people.

A double suicide bombing at a rock concert in Moscow on July 5 killed the female attackers and 15 other people. Soon afterward, a bomb authorities said a woman from Chechnya brought to a downtown Moscow street killed a bomb disposal expert.

In May in Chechnya, a suicide truck-bombing killed 72 people and a woman blew herself up at a religious ceremony, killing at least 18 people. In June, a female suicide bomber attacked a bus headed to a Russian military air base near Chechnya, killing herself and at least 16 others.

Meanwhile, four Russian servicemen were killed and eight wounded in rebel attacks, clashes and mine explosions in Chechnya in the previous 24 hours, an official in the Moscow-backed administration said Sunday on condition of anonymity.


Female suicide bomber attempts to kill Kadyrov's son

Interfax. Sunday, Jul. 27, 2003, 3:07 PM Moscow Time

GROZNY. July 27 (Interfax) - A female suicide bomber on Sunday attempted to kill Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov's son Ramazan, who heads one of his father's security groups.

Ramazan Kadyrov did not suffer, Akhmad Kadyrov's spokesman Shamsail Saraliyev has told Interfax.

The suicide bomber, aged about 20, approached the security force base in the village of Tsatsan-Yurt in the Kurchaloi district, when Ramazan Kadyrov was in, and blew herself up after security guards, alarmed by her nervousness, asked her to leave the place.

A woman, injured in the bomb explosion, was taken to a hospital where she underwent an operation.

The search for a second female suicide bomber, reportedly seen in the same area, is continuing, Saraliyev said, adding that she is probably a resident of the Kurchaloi district.

The dead suicide bomber has not been identified, he said. If the incident had occurred an hour or so later, it would have caused many deaths given the proximity of a market place and administrative buildings, said Saraliyev


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Woman injured in terrorist attack against Chechen security official

Interfax. Sunday, Jul. 27, 2003, 12:17 PM Moscow Time

GROZNY. July 27 (Interfax) - A woman was injured in the village of Tsatsan-Yurt in Chechnya's Kurchaloi district on Sunday, when a female suicide bomber blew herself up in an attempt to kill Ramazan Kadyrov, the commander of a group of Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov's security guards.

The suicide bomber, aged about 20, approached the security force base at about 10:30 a.m., when Ramazan Kadyrov was in, and blew herself up after security guards, alarmed by her nervousness, asked her to leave the place, sources in the Chechen Interior Ministry have told Interfax.

They said the police are looking for a second suicide bomber reportedly prepared to carry out a terrorist attack against Ramazan Kadyrov.

Policemen and security experts have cordoned off the scene of the incident, and are gathering evidence, questioning witnesses and taking pictures of the place.


Woman injured in Chechnya suicide bombing dies
July 28, 2003 Posted: 12:55 Moscow time (08:55 GMT) 


ROSTOV-ON-DON - A woman died of injuries she suffered in a suicide bombing that authorities said was aimed at the son of Chechnya's administration chief, officials said Monday.

Berlant Zakriyeva died from shrapnel wounds in a hospital in the Kurchaloi district of Chechnya, where a female attacker detonated explosives Sunday outside a base of a security force commanded by administration chief Akhmad Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, a duty officer at the regional branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

On Sunday, Chechnya's top emergency official, Ruslan Avtayev, had said the bomber was killed and a female bystander lightly injured in the blast, which he and other officials characterized as an attempt on Ramzan Kadyrov's life.

Zakriyeva was a resident of Tsatsan-Yurt, the village where the attack took place.

The attacker approached a building where Ramzan Kadyrov was reviewing members of his force and detonated her explosives after being halted by guards who thought she looked suspicious, a spokesman for Akhmad Kadyrov, Samail Saraliyev, said Sunday.

Female suicide bombers have carried out several attacks in Chechnya and Moscow in recent months.

/The Associated Press/


Chechen prosecutor denies leader's son targeted by suicide bomber

BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Jul 27, 2003

[No dateline, as received] There has been no assassination attempt on [Chechen pro-Kremlin head Akhmad Kadyrov's son Ramzan] Kadyrov, the Chechen prosecutor's office has told Ekho Moskvy radio.

Earlier media reports said that a 20-year-old girl activated an explosive device, standing next to the commander of Chechen Interior Ministry's special company, Ramzan Kadyrov, in the village of Tsotsin-Yurt, Kurchaloy District.

A reliable source in the Chechen prosecutor's office said that there was no exercise held in the village [as received]. Neither was Kadyrov present at the site.

Source: Ekho Moskvy news agency, Moscow, in Russian 1420 gmt 27 Jul 03