Terrorism blamed for Russian air crashes

ONE of two Russian airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously was brought down by a terrorist act officials said yesterday after finding traces of explosives in the plane's wreckage.

An Islamic militant group claimed responsibility for the attack in a web statement.

The planes, with 90 people aboard, went down within 20 minutes of each other Tuesday night. In Washington, a Bush administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was mounting evidence that both crashes were acts of terrorism.