Suicide attack kills at least 65

Suicide bombers in a pair of trucks roared up to the headquarters of the Kremlin-backed government in rebel Chechnya and blew them up today, killing at least 65 people and wounding more than 60.

The blasts wrecked much of the government headquarters and dealt a severe blow to the efforts of President Vladimir Putin’s government to portray the republic as returning to normal after more than three years of war between separatist guerrilla bands and a massive Russian military contingent.

The government has tried to reinforce its claim by pressuring refugees to go home and shepherding foreign journalsts to Grozny on carefully controlled tours to examine reconstruction projects.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack in Grozny, but Russian officials variously blamed Chechnya’s rebel president Aslan Maskhadov or warlord Shamil Basayev.

Maskhadov broke ranks with Basayev last month after the latter claimed involvement in the October raid by Chechen gunmen on a Moscow theatre, in which 41 raiders and 129 hostages died.

The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry said at least 35 people were confirmed dead in the blast and that rescuers were finding fragments of other bodies as they scrabbled through the heaps of broken concrete and shattered glass.

More than 60 were known to be wounded and the ministry said many of them would be sent to other republics for treatment because the hospitals in war-ravaged Grozny were insufficient to handle the catastrophe.

Although Russian troops have had nominal control of Grozny since early 2000, the city remains largely in ruins from intense Russian air and artillery attacks. Rebels heavily infiltrate the city and bloody Russian forces there with daily hit-and-run attacks remote-controlled explosives.

The explosions hit around 2:30 pm (1130 Irish time), just after the traditional lunch break. Imran Vagapov, Chechnya’s main inspector, said that the government headquarters building was full of employees and visitors. About 200 people usually worked in the building.

The head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, has offices in the building but was in Moscow at the time of the blast. Kadyrov, although he has become increasingly critical of the Russian military campaign in Chechnya, is regarded as a turncoat by rebels, as are other Chechens who work with Russian authorities.

Initial reports said the vehicles that blew up were a Kamaz heavy truck and a military-style UAZ light truck. The emergency ministry said the blasts’ combined force was the equivalent of about a half-ton of TNT.

The blasts left a 20-foot-wide crater, destroyed one of the building’s wings and left much of the main structure a shell, the emergency ministry said.

Stunned and bleeding people stumbled out of the rubble. Others were dragged out by their hands and feet, while bloodied soldiers tried to establish order. As darkness settled over the site, rescuers were still pulling bodies out of the wreckage, and heavy cranes were moving in to drag away collapsed slabs of concrete.

Kadyrov said one of the trucks had broken through three security cordons surrounding the government headquarters and called for an investigation of the security guards.

“How could the terrorists have managed to break through three fences around the government building? The guards’ actions must be investigated,” Kadyrov said.

He said it was useless to beef up security after the attack, including the normal practice of stopping all cars.

“How many times have we conducted these traffic checks, and to what aim? Just as before, the terrorists act as if they were masters of Grozny,” he said.

Aslan Magomadov, an envoy of Putin, said there would be ”serious questions” for the Ministry of Justice, Federal Guards Service and the Federal Security Service.