Bomb blast disrupts celebrations in Russia, 32 killed

By Arsen Mollayev

Associated Press

KASPIISK, Russia – A remote-controlled bomb exploded Thursday as a Victory Day parade marched down the main street of this Caspian Sea port town near Chechnya. At least 32 people died, including 12 children, and 150 were injured as the town celebrated the Allied defeat of Nazi Germany.

No one claimed responsibility, but prosecutors in restive Dagestan, the province where Kaspiisk is located, said Islamic militants were suspected. In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin called the blast a terrorist attack.

Six years ago, Kaspiisk was the scene of a bombing that killed 68 people, many of them Russian border guards, and Chechen rebels were suspected of the attack.

Chechnya, some 100 miles west of Kaspiisk, is a largely Islamic republic in southern Russia. Rebels there, supported by Islamic militants outside the country, are waging a war of independence.

On Thursday, a mangled drum heaped with flowers lay next to abandoned horns and an empty boot. Streams of blood trickled down the pocked, tree-lined road. Windows in nearby apartments were shattered. The parade was headed to the town cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It was the 57th anniversary of the Nazi defeat.

In a separate attack, four policemen were hurt in the Chechen capital, Grozny, when rebels fired grenade launchers into a Victory Day celebration in a stadium. It was unclear whether the attacks were related.

The attacks came as Russia was in a buoyant, patriotic mood with parades and celebrations nationwide to mark Victory Day, one of Russia’s biggest holidays.

“When I got there, I saw a mound of bodies, people in panic,” said Magomad Akhmedov, a 35-year-old teacher. “Someone began giving first aid, some started to bind people’s wounds and stop the blood with whatever they could find.”

As medical clinics in Kaspiisk and the regional capital, Makhachkala, filled up with the wounded, cars with loudspeakers rolled slowly through the towns, asking for blood donations.

Abdul Musayev, a Dagestan Interior Ministry spokesman, said 16 military men – most of them band members, 12 children and four adult bystanders were killed. Officials said the bomb blew up with the force of six to 11 pounds of TNT.

Aminat Kuliyeva’s children were playing on the street during the Kaspiisk celebration.

“When I heard the blast I ran out to search for them, and I froze,” Kuliyeva said. “All around were the dead, lots of blood, people screaming. When the shock passed, I ran to find the children. Thank God, they weren’t hurt.”

In Moscow, thousands of troops marched through Red Square past Putin and aging World War II veterans, while triumphant music and films filled the airwaves and streets were blanketed in building-size banners.

After a speech at the Red Square parade, Putin convened an emergency meeting of his top law enforcement and defense officials.

“I think there are few people who doubt this was a terrorist act,” he said.

At a reception later, he said: “Today is the most dear holiday for our people. Today’s act was committed by scum for whom nothing is sacred.”

“We have the right to view (the perpetrators) as we view Nazis, as those whose purpose is to sow terror and kill. But however difficult the tasks before us today, they will be solved.”

The bomb was apparently hidden under greenery in a ditch along Lenin Street. Rescuers said body parts were flung around the site.

“My son, my son,” one woman sobbed in a report shown on state-run RTR television.

Authorities cordoned off the center of Kaspiisk, 90 miles north of the Russian border with Azerbaijan, and bomb experts were searching the town.

Other rebel attacks in Chechnya during the previous 24 hours killed four Russian servicemen and wounded seven, the official said on condition of anonymity. While large-scale fighting in Chechnya has subsided, rebels continue to stage raids and mine blasts that kill Russian troops daily.

Chechnya won de facto independence after a 1994-96 war between separatists and Russian troops. Russian forces returned in 1999 after Chechnya-based rebels invaded Dagestan and a series of apartment house bombings around Russia left 300 dead. The bombings were blamed on rebels.

Dagestan sees frequent small-scale bombings and other unrest, often spillover violence from Chechnya.