Moscow:
Two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on Moscow's underground railway system as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers on Monday, killing at least 38 people and wounding 65, officials said. (Read: Suicide attacks hit Moscow)
Russia has said yesterday's twin metro blasts could have links with the terror networks based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he cannot rule out a foreign hand in the blasts. He has said Moscow is well informed about the so-called no-man's land on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where many terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and other countries are plotted.
The head of Russia's main security agency said preliminary investigation places the blame on rebels from the restive Caucasus region that includes Chechenya, where separatists have fought Russian forces since the mid-1990s.
The first explosion took place just before 8 am local time (0400 GMT) at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. (See: Moscow blasts in pics)
The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB's main successor agency.
A second explosion hit the Park Kultury station about 45 minutes later.
Photographs taken at both stations soon after the blasts graphically showed the carnage they caused.
In a televised meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev, Federal Security Service head Alexander Bortnikov said body fragments of the two bombers pointed to a Caucasus connection.
The Moscow underground railway system is one of the world's busiest, carrying around seven million passengers on an average workday.
"Regardless of the motives behind their actions, what they've done is a crime under any law, and from any moral standpoint," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.
Medvedev said authorities have "destroyed everybody who organised the Nevsky Express train blast," referring to the bombing in November of a passenger train en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg in which 26 people died.
Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov took responsibility for the November attack.
Officials blamed Monday's carnage on rebels from the Caucasus region, following the killings of several high-profile separatist leaders there.
Medvedev said the deaths were "terrible, painful and hard for all of us."
The Russian president added that he would order the federal government to come up with a "modern warning and control system" for transport systems nationwide in a bid to prevent future attacks.
The blasts come six years after separatists from the southern Russian region carried out a pair of deadly Moscow subway strikes and raises concern that the war has once again come to the capital, amid militants' warnings of a renewed determination to push their fight.
Last month, Umarov warned Moscow in an interview on a rebel-affiliated website that "the war is coming to their cities."
Moscow is unlikely to hit back at the rebels with massive firepower:
The Kremlin has installed loyal leaders in the areas where the militants operate, making bombing campaigns of the kind used in the 1990s Chechen wars out of the question.
The Kremlin is already engaged in a huge escalation of its operations to defeat the rebels, and it is difficult to see what more it could do.
The iconic Moscow subway system is the world's second-busiest after Tokyo's, carrying around seven million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.
The last confirmed militant attack in Moscow was in August 2004, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a subway station, killing 10 people.
Responsibility for that blast was claimed by Chechen rebels.
A more devastating attack took place in February of that year, when a suicide bomber from the North Caucasus set off explosives during morning rush hour as it travelled between stations.
More than 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Russian police have killed several rebel leaders in the North Caucasus recently, including one last week in the Kabardino-Balkariya region, which has raised fears of retaliatory strikes by the separatists.
Neither Medvedev nor Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was on an official trip in Siberia, announced specific measures and it was not clear if Russia has new strategies to unleash in the Caucasus, where violent separatism has spread across the region.
Russia has said yesterday's twin metro blasts could have links with the terror networks based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said he cannot rule out a foreign hand in the blasts. He has said Moscow is well informed about the so-called no-man's land on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, where many terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and other countries are plotted.
The head of Russia's main security agency said preliminary investigation places the blame on rebels from the restive Caucasus region that includes Chechenya, where separatists have fought Russian forces since the mid-1990s.
The first explosion took place just before 8 am local time (0400 GMT) at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. (See: Moscow blasts in pics)
The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the KGB's main successor agency.
A second explosion hit the Park Kultury station about 45 minutes later.
Photographs taken at both stations soon after the blasts graphically showed the carnage they caused.
In a televised meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev, Federal Security Service head Alexander Bortnikov said body fragments of the two bombers pointed to a Caucasus connection.
The Moscow underground railway system is one of the world's busiest, carrying around seven million passengers on an average workday.
"Regardless of the motives behind their actions, what they've done is a crime under any law, and from any moral standpoint," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said.
Medvedev said authorities have "destroyed everybody who organised the Nevsky Express train blast," referring to the bombing in November of a passenger train en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg in which 26 people died.
Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov took responsibility for the November attack.
Officials blamed Monday's carnage on rebels from the Caucasus region, following the killings of several high-profile separatist leaders there.
Medvedev said the deaths were "terrible, painful and hard for all of us."
The Russian president added that he would order the federal government to come up with a "modern warning and control system" for transport systems nationwide in a bid to prevent future attacks.
The blasts come six years after separatists from the southern Russian region carried out a pair of deadly Moscow subway strikes and raises concern that the war has once again come to the capital, amid militants' warnings of a renewed determination to push their fight.
Last month, Umarov warned Moscow in an interview on a rebel-affiliated website that "the war is coming to their cities."
Moscow is unlikely to hit back at the rebels with massive firepower:
The Kremlin has installed loyal leaders in the areas where the militants operate, making bombing campaigns of the kind used in the 1990s Chechen wars out of the question.
The Kremlin is already engaged in a huge escalation of its operations to defeat the rebels, and it is difficult to see what more it could do.
The iconic Moscow subway system is the world's second-busiest after Tokyo's, carrying around seven million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.
The last confirmed militant attack in Moscow was in August 2004, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a subway station, killing 10 people.
Responsibility for that blast was claimed by Chechen rebels.
A more devastating attack took place in February of that year, when a suicide bomber from the North Caucasus set off explosives during morning rush hour as it travelled between stations.
More than 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.
Russian police have killed several rebel leaders in the North Caucasus recently, including one last week in the Kabardino-Balkariya region, which has raised fears of retaliatory strikes by the separatists.
Neither Medvedev nor Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was on an official trip in Siberia, announced specific measures and it was not clear if Russia has new strategies to unleash in the Caucasus, where violent separatism has spread across the region.
