Chechen suicide attack leaves eight dead

Two suicide bombers were among up to eight people killed today when a truck packed with explosives blew up near a government compound in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Akhmed Dzheirkhanov, the deputy chief of Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry branch in the rebel republic, said the truck, loaded with 1.5 tons of TNT, exploded 70 yards from the headquarters of the Chechen police unit for fighting organised crime.

Chechen Justice Ministry official, Vadish Tepkayev, said eight people had been killed. More than 30 were injured

Chechnya’s prosecutor, Vladimir Kravchenko, said the remains of a man and a woman, believed to be suicide bombers who were in the truck, were found at the scene.

The explosion, which carved out a crater ten feet wide and 12 feet deep, followed a day of heavy fighting in which 11 servicemen were killed.

The rebel attacks have undercut the Kremlin’s efforts to portray the situation in the war-shattered region as stabilising. The Russian parliament last month approved a partial amnesty in hopes of encouraging rebels to abandon their fight.

Rebels forced Russian troops out of the Caucasus republic after a 1994-96 war, leaving it de facto independent. Russian troops rolled back in 1999 after rebels raided a neighbouring Russian region and after a series of apartment explosions blamed on rebels.