Two blasts rock Russia’s North Ossetia region

Two blasts hit Russia’s Caucasus yesterday, one killing a policeman at a checkpoint and the other wounding about two dozen at a street cafe, in the latest attacks to rock the turbulent region.

In the first attack, a young man blew himself up near a checkpoint in the region of North Ossetia, killing himself and a policeman, officials said.

Hours later, at least 22 people were wounded in a suspected car bomb explosion outside a cafe in the spa town of Pyatigorsk, popular with Russian holidaymakers, in the foothills of the Caucasus mountains.

The Kremlin calls the Caucasus unrest its biggest domestic problem and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin last month announced an ambitious drive to foster prosperity by enticing investors to the violence-torn region.

In North Ossetia an unidentified man walked up to the checkpoint close to the administrative border with neighbouring Ingushetia and detonated his charge, leaving one officer dead and wounding two others, Samir Sabatkoyev, spokesman for the Regional Interior Ministry, told AFP.

“He detonated an unidentified explosive device,” Mr Sabatkoyev said. “He blew himself up,” he added, noting it was “apparently” a suicide attack.

The two wounded policemen had “serious injuries”, added Maria Gatsoyeva, a spokeswoman for regional investigators, speaking from the regional capital Vladikavkaz.

North Ossetia lies to the north of the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, recognised by Russia as independent after the brief 2008 war with Georgia over its status.

The region is part of the country’s most volatile North Caucasus region, scene of the simmering guerilla war between Russian forces and separatist rebels, and deadly attacks in the republics of Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan are a near-daily occurrence.