Car Bomb Blast in Troubled Region of Southern Russia Kills 4 Police

[demoleft]

Source: AP

NAZRAN, Russia (AP) -- A car bomb exploded near a police vehicle in Russia's troubled North Caucasus region Friday, killing four police officers, witnesses and officials said.

The blast occurred in the center of Nazran, the main city in the violence-plagued Ingushetia region.

The bodies of three people, apparently police, could be seen on the ground before the area was cordoned off, and a fourth person was taken from the scene in an ambulance. Four police officers were killed, the Ingushetia branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry said.

...
Witnesses said a police vehicle stopped near a parked car, and officers emerged and apparently asked a group of men playing cards nearby about the car. It exploded as the police were getting back into their vehicle, the witnesses said - accounts that suggested the call could have been a trap to lure police to the car.



Read more: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_BOMB?SITE=INKEN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Hints at more ethnic tensions.

[ohio2007]

1. Russia marks Beslan siege deaths

Russia has marked the third anniversary of the school hostage crisis in Beslan, in which at least 331 people died, more than half of them children.


snip

Security has been stepped up across the region for the three days of commemorative events

snip

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6973726.stm

[demoleft]

3. And still it is not clear what really happened in that building.

It's incredible the injustice that reigns in the Russian territories.
Each one of us could have been born down there - imagine the misery, the sorrow, the anger...

[bemildred]

2. Ingushetia is a "troubled region" now?

Next thing Chechnya will be a "restive province" or something.

[ohio2007]

4. they are basically the same region

snip

The regional Interior Ministry said Friday's attack may have been aimed to frighten Russians and Ossetians, a mostly Orthodox Christian ethnic group concentrated in the neighboring republic of North Ossetia. Ingush and North Ossetians fought a territorial war in the early 1990s, and relations remain tense.

snip

"The people who did this are those who want things here to develop like they did in Chechnya," he said, not specifying whether he meant militants or forces linked to the government.


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUSSIA_BOMB?SITE=INKEN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Not exactly near "northern Siberia"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Ossetia-Alania



May 2007 article;
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/14/europe/EU-GEN-Russia-Dagestan.php

[bemildred]

5. I am well aware of the geography there, and the history.

I would love to visit and explore the historic sites there, but you can get killed ...

[ohio2007]

6. It's a big world

there are plenty of ways to explore it outside of what the MSM shows;

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4dc_1188224899

[bemildred]

7. My flashplayer is too feeble to handle that.

I did see a photo exhibit of thousand-year-old ruins of castles and military outposts a few years back which was stunning, and when you know the history of the area, it's hard not to be curious to go and see, to walk where Subotai rode and see what he saw (sort of).