Regional leader wounded in 'assassination' bid

The president of the troubled Russian North Caucasus region of Ingushetia has been wounded in an assassination attempt, according to Russian news agencies.

The attack on Yunus-Bek Yevkurov was the third to hit the region in the past three weeks and the fourth to unsettle the North Caucasus this month.

News agencies Interfax and RIA-Novosti said a bomb hit a convoy that Mr Yevkurov was travelling in on Monday morning.

Russian Federal Emergency Situations Ministry officials said Mr Yevkurov was in a critical condition. Itar-Tass said three bodyguards were killed.

Ingushetia is home to hundreds of refugees from the wars in Chechnya, to the south, and is one of Russia’s poorest regions. Like other North Caucasus regions, it has seen an alarming spike in violence in recent years.

Much of the violence linked to the two separatist wars that ravaged Chechnya over the past 15 years, but persistent poverty, corruption, feuding ethnic groups and the rise of radical Islam are also blamed.