Ingushetia

A suicide bomber rammed a truck packed with explosives through the gate of a busy police station in Russia's restive republic of Ingushetia today, killing 20 people in the blast and sending nearly 140 to the hospital, witnesses and officials said. The attack in the city of Nazran blew a gaping hole in the main building of the police station, mangled cars and peeled balconies and roofing off a nearby apartment building, witnesses said. Firefighters struggled to evacuate workers trapped in the burning rubble and to keep flames away from the nearby munitions depot, where small arms could be heard exploding in the heat of the fire, witnesses said.

A suicide bomber targeted a traffic police headquarters in the restive Russian republic of Dagestan on Wednesday, killing five officers and injuring 19 more. As a small, Russian-made SUV careened toward the building about 8 a.m., a team of police rammed their vehicle into the bomber's. The explosives went off on impact, killing all the police officers in the truck but preventing the bomber from reaching his target. The death toll would have been much higher had the officers not intervened, officials in Dagestan said.

Russia's president acknowledged today that growing violence in the impoverished southern republic of Ingushetia is rooted in unresolved domestic problems such as corruption and poverty. The statement was a stark admission of the deep and ominous troubles tearing at the Caucasus -- and a departure for an administration that has generally preferred to downplay the violence in its restive southern republics or, when pressed, to blame the bloodshed on foreign meddling. "You talked about the influence of a number of factors, including international ones such as funding of terrorists, religious extremism.

A prominent opposition and rights activist in Russia's southern province of Ingushetia was shot dead, at least the third killing in about three months of a human rights defender in the volatile North Caucasus. Maksharip Aushev worked to publicize rights abuses and organize rallies against Ingushetia's deeply unpopular former president, Murat Zyazikov -- activities that observers said made him a target. Assailants in a passing car sprayed Aushev's vehicle with automatic gun fire.

A suicide car bomber struck the presidential motorcade in the restive Russian republic of Ingushetia on Monday morning, killing at least one aide and sending the president to the hospital amid conflicting reports of his condition. The attempt to assassinate Yunus Bek Yevkurov, a career military and intelligence officer charged with taming the violence in the largely Muslim republic, underscored the instability and insurrections in Russia's southern borderlands.

A prominent opposition and rights activist in Russia's southern province of Ingushetia was shot dead, at least the third killing in about three months of a human rights defender in the volatile North Caucasus. Maksharip Aushev worked to publicize rights abuses and organize rallies against Ingushetia's deeply unpopular former president, Murat Zyazikov -- activities that observers said made him a target. Assailants in a passing car sprayed Aushev's vehicle with automatic gun fire.

This is a place where gangs with masked faces come out of the darkness to take the young men away. Sometimes the bodies turn up with broken limbs, bruises, torn-away fingernails and burns. Sometimes the captives are placed under arrest officially and turn up in jail. Lately, often, they simply disappear. Russia's hidden war against anti-government rebels across the Caucasus Mountains has reached a terrible intensity here in the small, mostly Muslim Russian republic of Ingushetia.

This is a place where gangs with masked faces come out of the darkness to take the young men away. Sometimes the bodies turn up with broken limbs, bruises, torn-away fingernails and burns. Sometimes the captives are placed under arrest officially and end up in jail. Lately, many simply disappear. Russia's hidden war against anti-government rebels across the Caucasus Mountains has reached a terrible intensity here in the small, mostly Muslim Russian republic of Ingushetia.

Russia's president acknowledged today that growing violence in the impoverished southern republic of Ingushetia is rooted in unresolved domestic problems such as corruption and poverty. The statement was a stark admission of the deep and ominous troubles tearing at the Caucasus -- and a departure for an administration that has generally preferred to downplay the violence in its restive southern republics or, when pressed, to blame the bloodshed on foreign meddling. "You talked about the influence of a number of factors, including international ones such as funding of terrorists, religious extremism.

A suicide bomber rammed a truck packed with explosives through the gate of a busy police station in Russia's restive republic of Ingushetia today, killing 20 people in the blast and sending nearly 140 to the hospital, witnesses and officials said. The attack in the city of Nazran blew a gaping hole in the main building of the police station, mangled cars and peeled balconies and roofing off a nearby apartment building, witnesses said. Firefighters struggled to evacuate workers trapped in the burning rubble and to keep flames away from the nearby munitions depot, where small arms could be heard exploding in the heat of the fire, witnesses said.

This is a place where gangs with masked faces come out of the darkness to take the young men away. Sometimes the bodies turn up with broken limbs, bruises, torn-away fingernails and burns. Sometimes the captives are placed under arrest officially and turn up in jail. Lately, often, they simply disappear. Russia's hidden war against anti-government rebels across the Caucasus Mountains has reached a terrible intensity here in the small, mostly Muslim Russian republic of Ingushetia.

This is a place where gangs with masked faces come out of the darkness to take the young men away. Sometimes the bodies turn up with broken limbs, bruises, torn-away fingernails and burns. Sometimes the captives are placed under arrest officially and end up in jail. Lately, many simply disappear. Russia's hidden war against anti-government rebels across the Caucasus Mountains has reached a terrible intensity here in the small, mostly Muslim Russian republic of Ingushetia.