MAKHACHKALA, Russia, Nov 21 (Reuters) – An improvised bomb
killed two policemen and one civilian in Russia’s volatile North
Caucasus on Wednesday and wounded five others, police said.
The bomb went off in Dagestan, an internal mostly Muslim
republic, which has been beset by violence blamed on insurgents
seeking to create an Islamic state in the North Caucasus, more
than a decade after Russian troops ousted a separatist
government in neighbouring Chechnya.
The deadly explosion took place when police entered an empty
former bank building in the town of Shamilkala to inspect an
area near the site of an earlier bomb blast that had caused no
casualties, the regional Interior Ministry said.
Insurgents in the Caucasus, on Russia’s southern border,
have frequently killed policemen by luring them to a site with
an initial blast and then setting off a second explosion.
President Vladimir Putin last month told security forces to
ensure there are no attacks on any of the major events that
Russia is to host in the coming years, including the 2014 Winter
Olympics in Sochi, near the North Caucasus.
(Writing by Nastassia Astrasheuskaya; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
