At least 14 people were reported killed today when a female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded religious event in Russia's breakaway republic of Chechnya, the second major rebel attack there within 48 hours.
Chechen emergencies minister Mr Ruslan Avtayev told Interfax news agency that 14 people were killed in the attack in the eastern village of Iliskhan-Yurt.
Another 150 people were wounded in the blast, of which 45 were rushed to hospitals in a critical condition, he said.
The reported toll fluctuated in the immediate aftermath of the blast, with Chechen Prosecutor General Vladimir Kravchenko saying eight people, including the bomber, had been killed.
And earlier Mr Avtayev had said that the toll had reached 30.
The number of attackers was also put into question, with some officials saying that two suicide bombers had carried out the blast.
Chechen Interior Minister Mr Ali Alkhanov also told Interfax that 12 people - excluding two suicide bombers - had been killed in the attack, which occurred during a religious procession attended by 15,000 people on the outskirts of Iliskhan-Yurt, 45 kilometres east of the capital Grozny.
Russian officials lost no time in accusing the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda of masterminding the latest reminder of Moscow's tenuous control over the war-torn republic, which followed a truck-bomb suicide attack that killed at least 59 people Monday.
"The FSB does not exclude that the real organisers of this terrorist act at the religious holiday are the Islamic fundamentalist leaders who are active in the Chechen republic," said a spokesman for the FSB (ex-KGB) security services, quoted by RIA Novosti.
Russia has portrayed its nearly four-year-long crackdown against separatist rebels in Chechnya as part of the global "war on terror" announced by the United States.
With two major attacks in three days, observers questioned President Vladimir Putin's declaration that the separatist conflict was over after Chechens adopted a new pro-Moscow constitution in March.
But Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov insisted there would be no change in Moscow's strategy, which rules out any peace talks with the rebels.
AFP