Second suicide bomber kills 31 on bus in Russia in two days

Russian firefighters inspect the trolleybus destroyed in a bomb attack in Volgograd on December 30, 2013 

Moscow, December 30
At least 31 people were killed and 30 others injured today when a suicide bomber blew himself up on a packed trolleybus in Volgograd, raising new concerns about security at the Sochi Olympics a day after an attack on the southern city’s train station.
President Vladimir Putin, under pressure to show that Russia can assure the security of tens of thousands of guests when the Winter Games open on February 7, ordered stepped up security across the country.
The twin suicide attacks on Volgograd, which until this year had no record of recent unrest, have stunned Russia and troubled the authorities as people prepare for mass New Year celebrations. At least 17 people died in yesterday's attack blamed on a suspected female suicide bomber. The force of the blast destroyed the number 15A trolleybus, which was packed with early morning commuters and was turned into a tangle of wreckage with only its roof and front remaining.

Russian city of Volgograd, site of a deadly suicide bombing Sunday and blast on trolleybus Monday 

Health ministry spokesman Oleg Salagai told Russian state television that 14 people were killed in the trolleybus bombing and 30 wounded. Russian investigators have opened a criminal probe into a suspected act of terror as well as the illegal carrying of weapons, the Investigative Committee said.

"The explosives were detonated by a male suicide bomber, fragments of whose body have been found and taken for genetic analysis to establish his identity," said spokesman Vladimir Markin. He said some four kilograms of TNT equivalent had been used in the blast.

Female suicide bomber kills 16 at Russian railway station 

At least 16 people were killed and many others wounded Sunday by a suicide bomber at Volgograd railway station in Volgograd, Russia, on Dec. 29, 2013

A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the entrance hall of a Russian train station on Sunday in Volgograd on December 29, killing at least 16 persons in the second deadly attack within three days as the country prepares to host the Winter Olympics.

The bomber detonated her explosives in front of a metal detector just inside the main entrance of Volgograd station. Footage shown on TV showed a massive orange fireball filling the stately colonnaded hall and smoke billowing out through shattered windows.

“People were lying on the ground, screaming and calling for help,” a witness, Alexander Koblyakov, told Rossiya-24 TV. “I helped carry out a police officer whose head and face were covered in blood. He couldn’t speak.”

A spokesman for Russian investigators said at least 16 people were killed. The regional governor put the toll at 15. President Vladimir Putin ordered law enforcement agencies to take all necessary precautions to ensure security, his spokesman said.

A federal police spokesman said measures would be tightened at stations and airports, with more officers on duty and stricter security checks. But the attack, just over two months after a female suicide bomber killed six persons on a bus in the same city, raised questions about the effectiveness of security measures which the Kremlin routinely orders to be increased after bombings.

It could add to concerns about the government’s ability to safeguard the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The Games, which open in 40 days’ time, are a major prestige project for Putin, who wants to show how far Russia has come since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Female suicide bombers - known as ‘black widows’ because some are the relatives of dead insurgents - have carried out several attacks claimed by Islamist militants.

Volgograd lies just above Russia’s restive North Caucasus region, a string of mostly Muslim provinces that includes Chechnya, where Russia has fought two wars against separatists in the past two decades. The region is beset by near-daily violence. Interfax news agency cited a law enforcement source as saying the attacker may have come from Dagestan, the province adjacent to Chechnya that is now the centre of the insurgency. The October bus bomber was from the same region.

Volgograd is a city of around 1 million people, and a major transport hub in southern Russia, about 690 km northeast of Sochi, where the Olympics will open on February 7. Insurgent leader Doku Umarov, a Chechen warlord, urged militants in a video posted online in July to use “maximum force” to prevent Putin staging the Olympics.

On Friday, a car bomb killed three people in Pyatigorsk, close to the North Caucasus and 270 km east of Sochi. “We can expect more such attacks,” said Alexei Filatov, deputy head of the veterans’ association of the elite Alfa anti-terrorism unit.

“The threat is greatest now because it is when terrorists can make the biggest impression,” he told Reuters. “The security measures were beefed up long ago around Sochi, so terrorists will strike instead in these nearby cities like Volgograd.”

Volgograd is one of the venues for the 2018 soccer World Cup, another high-profile sports event Putin has helped Russia win the right to stage, and which will bring thousands of foreign fans to cities around Russia. Sunday’s attack was the deadliest to strike Russia’s heartland since January 2011, when a male suicide bomber from the North Caucasus killed 37 persons in the arrival hall of a busy Moscow airport.

Threat looms over Winter Olympics
The fresh attack has heightened fears about security at the Winter Olympic Games, which opens on February 7, in Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi. Putin has ordered stepping up of security across Russia and new measures to national anti-terror committee. Russia is preparing to impose a security cordon around Sochi from January 7.