Suicide Bomber Reportedly Injures Six People In Russia's North Caucasus
Several Russian media outlets, citing sources close
to law enforcement, are reporting that a suicide bomber has injured at least
six people in the North Caucasus region of Karachai-Cherkessia.
The reports say a man detonated a bomb near a police
station in the village of Uchkeken on December 11, killing himself and injuring
others, including police officers and passersby.
The site has been cordoned off by police as
investigators arrive at the scene.
Karachai-Cherkessia is one of several autonomous
republics making up Russia's restive, mostly Muslim-populated North Caucasus,
which has long been plagued by criminal violence and Islamic radicals who have
mounted frequent attacks against police, public officials, and moderate Muslims
in the region.
However, rights activists have criticized security
officials and police in the region -- which also includes the volatile
republics of Chechnya, Daghestan, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria -- for
abuse of power, human rights violations, fabricating criminal cases, torture,
and extrajudicial killings.
