Five killed, scores hurt in Dagestan suicide bombing
A suicide bomber rammed a Russian military base yesterday, killing five people and wounding dozens more in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, law enforcement sources said. The explosives-packed car targeted a firing range used by the motor rifle...
A suicide bomber rammed a Russian military base yesterday, killing five people and wounding dozens more in the North Caucasus region of Dagestan, law enforcement sources said.
The explosives-packed car targeted a firing range used by the motor rifle brigade at Dalny near the city of Buynaksk, 40 kilometres west of the local capital Makhachkala, said the sources, who requested anonymity.
“Five people are dead,” a law enforcement source said.
“Three of them died on the spot and another two in hospital.”
At least another 35 people were injured in the blast and two of them were in a critical condition, he added.
Russia’s defence ministry put the death toll from the blast at three and said 33 people were wounded.
The ministry tightened security at military installations in its Southern Military District, which covers the mainly Muslim regions along Russia’s southern flank, spokesman Colonel Alexei Kuznetsov told Russian news agencies.
It had also sent a special team led by the acting Southern Military District commander to the site of the attack.
Prompt action by the guards, as the suicide bomber launch-ed the attack at about 00.30 a.m. (2030 GMT on Saturday), helped prevent an even higher death toll, said Col. Kuznetsov.
They opened fire on the explosive-laden car and blocked its run into the heart of the base with a truck, he said.
“After firing several warning shots, soldiers guarding the field camp opened fire on the terrorist’s car,” he said, quoted by RIA Novosti.