Russian forces kill women who planned suicide attack

Russian security forces killed two women in a security operation in Chechnya and said the two had planned a suicide bombing, a top military official told a news agency today.

Security forces killed the women during a raid in the village of Sernovodsk on Thursday, acting on information obtained from two suspects who were detained when an explosives-laden vehicle was discovered, Major General Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the federal forces in the North Caucasus region, was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Two other suspected militants and a police officer also died in the raid.

“Intelligence information and testimony provided by the men driving a Kamaz truck stuffed with explosives … indicate that these female suicide bombers had been trained earlier to drive such a vehicle,” Shabalkin was quoted as saying by the news agency.

The truck bomb seizure and a separate discovery of a poisons cache came only days before dozens of dignitaries arrive in Moscow for celebrations on Monday marking the Allied victory over Nazi Germany. Russian authorities almost immediately blamed the planned attacks on militants, including some with reputed ties to al-Qaida.

Reflecting the tension, police in Moscow have reported almost daily this week that explosives had been found in cars. Special police and soldiers are more visible and patrolling the streets.

Authorities linked the truck laden with more than a tonne of explosives to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, and leaders Doku Umarov and Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev, the successor to slain rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.

Russia also claimed the rebel leaders were planning poison attacks in the capitals of the Russian North Caucasus region and large regional centres elsewhere in Russia.