Moscow subway bomber identified as rebel's widow

One of the Moscow subway suicide bombers was the 17-year-old widow of a slain Islamist rebel from the North Caucasus, a leading Russian newspaper reported today.

Monday’s bombings killed 39 people and injured about 90 in attacks that the security chief blamed on unnamed militants from the volatile southern region.

The Kommersant today published a photograph of a young woman dressed in a black Muslim headscarf and holding a pistol. It names her as Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova from Dagestan.

A man with his arm around her, also holding a gun, is identified as Umalat Magomedov, whom the paper said was an Islamist militant leader killed by government forces in December.

The report, giving no sources, identified the second bomber as 20-year-old woman from Chechnya.

Russian officials would not immediately confirm either identification claim.