Black Widows suspected of Moscow bombings
Updated at: 0600 PST, Tuesday, March 30, 2010
MOSCOW: The Kremlin faced a serious new terrorist challenge yesterday as suspected women suicide bombers were blamed for two large explosions on packed Metro trains in the centre of Moscow that killed at least 38 and injured another 64.
There was rush-hour carnage at Lubyanka station, directly beneath the headquarters of the Soviet-era KGB, which now houses the Federal Security Service (FSB), and at Park Kultury, near the Interior Ministry.
The explosions were blamed on suspected Islamic militants from the Northern Caucasus region, where several prominent separatist leaders have been killed recently by Russian security forces. The bombers may have been so-called Black Widows, Chechen women who have lost family members to the Russian military.
President Medvedev promised to find and destroy the organisers of the attacks. They are simply beasts, he said, after laying flowers at the platform of the Lubyanka station.
He implicitly criticised the security services for failing to do more to protect the country. Obviously, what we have done before is not enough, he said, echoing popular sentiment expressed during radio phone-ins and in online discussions.
Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, cut short a trip to Siberia and vowed the terrorists will be destroyed.
Witnesses spoke of panic and chaos as the bombs believed to have been concealed in suicide belts and to contain metal fragments and nails exploded 40 minutes apart.Valeri, a Metro passenger, said: I was changing trains at Lubyanka station when I saw people running in opposite directions.
They all looked terribly scared, faces [covered] in blood and soot. When I arrived at Lubyanka platform I saw several bodies on the floor and just one medic trying to help one of them. Not everyone realised there was an explosion. Some of them thought the roof of the station had fallen in.
Last night, there were reports that the suspected bomber in the Park Kultury attack was aged between 18 and 20, her face sufficiently unmarked as to be recognisable. The other womans facial features were also said to be visible. Both women had black hair and wore black clothes.
Black Widows suspected of Moscow bombings