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Russia Accuses Khattab Over Fatal Bomb Blasts
MOSCOW, March 25 (News Agencies) - Russia on Sunday accused Chechen military commander Khattab of being behind a series of bombings that killed 24 people and wounded 143 in the south of the country near the border with the separatist republic.
The news comes as Russian security sources announced they had discovered and defused three more car bombs in Chechnya overnight Saturday.
"One of the main theories is that these acts of terror were carried out by the Khattab group," Nikolai Patrushev, the head of Russia's security service, the FSB, told ORT television.
Jordanian-born Chechen field commander Khattab is one of the rebel force's most feared military commanders.
Patrushev was speaking from Cherkesya, in the Caucasian republic of Karachayevo-Cherkesya, where one of the bombs went off.
Russian Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov, also in Cherkesya, confirmed that evidence so far indicated Khattab's involvement. "We are basing this on the elements of the inquiry," he added.
Ustinov also said that a suspect had been arrested. Sources close to the investigation said the suspect was the owner of one of the cars.
A spokesman for separatist Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov has denied responsibility for the attacks. It is not clear, however, how many Chechen fighters are currently under his direct control.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Sergei Yastrjembski said Sunday a group of Chechens arrested recently in Grozny were suspected of belonging to the cell behind the attacks, Interfax reported.
Deputy Interior Minister Ivan Golubev - speaking from Yesentuky, another of the bomb blast sites - said investigators had established that similar explosives had been used in all three bomb attacks, Interfax reported.
One car bomb went off at a local market in Mineralnye Vody early Saturday and a second blew up near a highway police checkpoint in Yesentuky, 30 kilometers (18 miles) southwest of Mineralnye Vody at the same time.
A third bomb exploded in a car in the neighboring republic of Karachayevo-Cherkesya.
Twenty-five of those injured in Saturday's three nearly simultaneous blasts remained in serious condition, officials said Sunday.
The blasts caused one of the heaviest death tolls from bomb attacks in Russian territory since the Kremlin launched its self-styled "anti-terrorist" ground offensive in the republic on October 1, 1999.
Russian television broadcast grisly scenes of charred cars and bodies mutilated beyond recognition.
Meanwhile, security sources said that armed police had sealed off the entrances to all Russian villages neighboring Chechnya in the southern republic of Dagestan.
They were also conducting identity checks - detested by many of the villagers - in their search for the culprits of Saturday's strikes.
Putin sent a message of condolence to the victims' families, regretting that "once more, blood has been spilled and civilians have become the victims of cruel terrorist acts."
Putin adopted a tough tone that once helped boost his popularity when the war first began, easing him to an election victory one year ago on Monday, promising that, "those who planned and carried out these despicable murders will be found and punished."
"These people can only be dealt with harshly. They don't understand any other language," Putin added.
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