Suicide bomber kills four Chechen policemen

A SUICIDE bomber has killed four policemen in Chechnya in the second such attack in a week and just a day after a visit to the restive Russian region by prime minister Vladimir Putin.

Officials said a man walked up to the policemen yesterday as their car was being washed at a garage near the Chechen capital, Grozny, and detonated explosives strapped to his body. Some Russian media reported that a fifth policemen was injured and that two bystanders also died in the blast.

The attack came four days after two Chechen men on bicycles rode up to policemen in Grozny and blew themselves up, killing four officers and wounding at least two others. It was believed to be the first time Chechen bombers have used bicycles, a tactic used by Islamist militants in other parts of the world.

Yesterday’s attack came less than 24 hours after Mr Putin made a flying visit to Chechnya for talks with its president Ramzan Kadyrov, who is accused by rights groups of instituting a reign of terror in the region and is a target for assassination by rebels who call him a traitor.

Mr Kadyrov has sought to extend his influence into the neighbouring republics of Ingushetia and Dagestan during an upsurge in violence against police, soldiers and politicians.

Dozens of security personnel across the region have been killed in recent weeks; Ingushetia’s construction minister was shot dead in his office and its president was seriously wounded in a huge car bomb blast. Last week, at least 25 people died and 140 were injured when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden truck into a police station in Ingushetia.

The Kremlin says rebels in the North Caucasus are part of a foreign-funded Islamist network linked to al-Qaeda. Analysts say Islamist influence has grown in the area, but that grinding poverty, endemic corruption and police brutality also drive young men to join armed groups.

Russian leaders appear to have been surprised by the surge in violence across the region, which comes after they announced an end to anti-terrorist operations in Chechnya in April.

“Some time ago we got the impression the situation in the Caucasus concerning terrorist attacks had improved,” Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said after last week’s truck-bomb blast.

“Unfortunately, recent events show this is not so . . . We must continue fighting terrorists without sentiment, killing them without emotion or doubt.”