RUSSIA: The Kremlin said yesterday that the same network of international terrorists was responsible for the attacks on Saudi apartment blocks and Monday's suicide bombing in the Russian republic of Chechnya.
The death toll from the Chechen blast rose to 55 yesterday, and officials said it would probably climb further as doctors fought to save the lives of 57 gravely injured people among the 200 or so hurt in the blast.
As volunteers searched for bodies beneath the ruins of the government compound in the town of Znamenskoye, Russian politicians and security officials asked how a truck of apparent military origin made it through at least two checkpoints before exploding in front of guarded administrative buildings and houses. Russian President Mr Vladimir Putin told visiting NATO Secretary General Mr George Robertson that Moscow and the West should work together to fight international terrorism.
"I have in mind the latest terrorist attack in Chechnya and the serious terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia," Mr Putin said in comments shown on national television. "The hallmarks are absolutely identical in both places, and the results are comparable."
Earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mr Alexander Yakovenko said the two attacks were a call to arms for all nations targeted by terror groups.
"The explosions in Saudi Arabia, Chechnya and other places are links in the same chain," he said. "The problem of terrorism, in all its aspects, has not only failed to disappear, but demands the further mobilisation and combined effort of all countries fighting this evil."
Russia has long called on the West to recognise Chechnya as a hotbed of international terror, and says the region's separatist rebels are funded by radical Islamic groups, including al-Qaeda. Monday's bombing further undermined Moscow's claims to have all but pacified Chechnya, where federal troops still die daily in their second war with rebels since 1994.
A controversial March referendum - which the Kremlin says proved Chechnya's desire to remain part of Russia - has only intensified guerrilla attacks.
"The terrorist act in Chechnya was an attempt by destructive forces not only in Chechnya, but also outside it, to close off the road to peace for the Chechen people," Mr Putin said.
Mr Sultan Satuyev, Chechnya's deputy interior minister, said yesterday that the Kamaz truck used in the bombing had twice been stopped for security checks on its way to Znamenskoye, which had been considered one of Chechnya's safest towns. In Kommersant newspaper he queried why police and soldiers stopped the truck but didn't check in the back of it.