Moscow suicide bombs prompt heightened security

Moscow commuters distraught by a suicide bombing near a subway stop that killed 10 people laid a phalanx of flowers near the station entrance today and police promised heightened security on the sprawling city’s transit system.

Doctors laboured through the night to save the lives of others who were severely wounded by the bomb that officials said was packed with bolts and other small hardware in order to maximise casualties.

In all, 51 people were wounded and 49 of them hospitalised, officials said.

Yesterday’s blast, which the Federal Security Service said had the equivalent of 4.4 pounds of TNT, took place almost exactly a week after two Russian planes crashed within minutes of each other in what officials say were terrorist bombings.

A few hours earlier, the Supreme Court had turned down the appeal of Zarema Muzhakhoyeva, convicted in an aborted suicide bombing attempt at a Moscow restaurant last year.

A police officer was killed when the bomb exploded as he was trying to defuse it.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told reporters near the Rizhskaya subway stop in northern Moscow that Tuesday evening’s female bomber was walking toward the station but saw two police officers stationed there, turned around “and decided to destroy herself in a crowd of people”.

The blast tore through a heavily trafficked area between the subway station and a nearby department store-supermarket complex.

A militant Muslim web site monitored in Cairo published a statement claiming responsibility for the bombing on behalf of the “Islambouli Brigades”, a group that also claimed responsibility for the airliner crashes.

The veracity of the statements could not immediately be confirmed.

The statement said that yesterday’s bombing was a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin “who slaughtered Muslims time and again”.

Putin has firmly refused to negotiate with rebels in predominantly Muslim Chechnya who have fought Russian forces for most of the past decade, saying they must be wiped out.

Several female suicide bombers allegedly connected with the rebels have caused carnage in Moscow and other Russian cities in a series of attacks in recent years.

Many of the women bombers are believed to be so-called ”black widows”, who have lost husbands or male relatives in the fighting that has gripped Chechnya for most of the past decade.

Investigators of the plane crashes are seeking information about two Chechen women believed to have been aboard – one on each plane.

Police spokesman Valery Gribakin said hours after the blast that police patrols were being increased and document checks stepped up, and that security at subway and train stations and airports was being boosted. However, no increase of uniformed officers was immediately apparent at subway stations as Wednesday morning’s rush-hour commute began.

Moscow’s streets are routinely choked with traffic and many of the city’s estimated 10 million people have little alternative to the subway. Television reports today showed commuters heading to the Rizhskaya station laying cut flowers and lighting candles near the entrance, their faces appearing dejected and resigned.