MOSCOW, 16 September 2003 — A suspected suicide bomber blew up a truck outside security offices near Chechnya yesterday, killing at least three people in a fresh setback for Moscow’s peace plan for the region.
The truck packed with explosives detonated at the headquarters of Russia’s FSB security service in Magas, capital of Ingushetia — a tiny Russian province adjoining Chechnya.
“It was clearly an act of terror,” Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky told Itar-Tass news agency.
“According to our preliminary theory, it was a truck driven by a suicide bomber that exploded near the building.”
The blast occurred in the middle of campaigning for an Oct. 5 election for Chechen president — center-piece of President Vladimir Putin’s plan to bring peace to the region. Moscow refuses to talk to separatists, excluded from the poll.
Russian television showed virtually all windows shattered and the roof badly damaged in the three-story building. Commentators said casualties would have been far greater had the walls not withstood the blast. The lavish headquarters of the Ingush president across the street was also damaged.
An Ingush Interior Ministry spokeswoman told Reuters two people died in the noon explosion, while another died on the way to hospital and 24 were being treated for their injuries.
It was not immediately clear whether the truck driver was among the dead. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.
Extremists among separatists have resorted increasingly to suicide attacks, killing 150 people since April.
About 50 people died last month when a truck bomb exploded outside a hospital northwest of Chechnya treating soldiers near Russia’s biggest base in the southern Caucasus region.
