MAKHACHKALA, Russia: A suicide bomber blew up an explosives-packed car at a police station in Russia’s troubled North Caucasus on Wednesday, killing six officers and wounding at least 16 people, officials said.
The officers who died were taking action to prevent far greater devastation at the traffic police station on the outskirts of Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, where 150 officers were lined up outside for roll call at the time of the attack, city police chief Col. Shamil Guseinov said.
The bomber detonated the explosives at the station gate after police stopped him from driving through, Guseinov said. Those killed were at the gate, including three officers in a police jeep that blocked the attacker’s path, he said.
A similar bombing in a neighboring republic of Ingushetia in August killed 24 people and injured more than 200. In that attack, a man succeeded in crashing a bomb-laden van through the gates of the police station in Nazran. The explosion left a bus-sized crater in what was left of the station.
Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya, all predominantly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus, have seen a sharp rise in violence last year, with many of the nearly daily attacks targeting police and other officials.
The bomber’s body was blown to bits. Police estimated that 50 to 200 kilograms of TNT was packed into the Niva, a small Russian-made SUV.
The blast damaged the police station and blew out the windows of a nearby building. Buckshot from the bomb was scattered across the area.
Guseinov said police had received information about a planned attack and had moved the daily roll call well inside the station’s territory, 200 meters from the gate.
The Emergency Situations Ministry said six officers were killed and at least 16 people were wounded, possibly including a couple of civilians.
President Dmitry Medvedev immediately ordered the interior minister, who oversees Russia’s police, to step up security in Dagestan and provide assistance to the families of the officers who died.
Dagestan, home to 2.7 million people, is the most multi-ethnic region in Russia, with more than a dozen official languages.
Dagestan and Ingushetia both border Chechnya, where Russian troops have fought two full-scale wars against separatist rebels in the past 15 years.
In the most recent violence in Chechnya, four police troops were injured in two separate attacks on Tuesday. In both cases, an explosive device blew up as the troops walked along a village road or wooded path, police spokesman Magomed Deniyev said.
