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| Women cry laying flowers outside the Volgograd main railway station in Volgograd, Russia, early Monday Dec. 30, 2013. Russian authorities ordered police to beef up security at train stations and other facilities across the country after a suicide bomber killed 14 people on a bus Monday in the southern city of Volgograd.It was the second deadly attack in two days on the city that lies just 400 miles (650 kilometers) from the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics. |
MOSCOW (AP)
-- Two suicide bombings in as many days have killed 31 people and raised
concerns that Islamic militants have begun a terrorist campaign in
Russia that could stretch into the Sochi Olympics in February. Russian
and international Olympic officials insisted the site of the games,
protected by layers of security, is completely safe.
The
attacks in Volgograd, about 400 miles (650 kilometers) from Sochi,
reflected the Kremlin's inability to uproot Islamist insurgents in the
Caucasus who have vowed to derail the games, the pet project of
President Vladimir Putin.
No one has claimed
responsibility for Sunday's blast at the Volgograd railway station or
Monday's bus explosion in the city, but they came only months after
Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov threatened new attacks on civilian
targets in Russia, including the Olympics.
In
addition to the dead, the bombings wounded 104 people, according to
Russia's Health Ministry. As of late Monday, 58 remained hospitalized,
many in grave condition.
Suicide bombings have
rocked Russia for years, but the insurgents seeking to create an
Islamic state have largely confined their attacks to the North Caucasus
region in recent years. The blasts in Volgograd signaled that militants
want to show their reach outside their native region.
Matthew
Clements, an analyst at Jane's, said Caucasus militants could be
targeting major transportation hubs like Volgograd to embarrass the
Kremlin and discourage attendance at the Feb. 7-23 Olympics.
"The
attack demonstrates the militants' capability to strike at soft targets
such as transport infrastructure outside of their usual area of
operations in the North Caucasus," he said in a note. "Although the very
strict security measures which will be in place at the Sochi Games will
make it difficult to undertake a successful attack against the main
Olympic venues, public transport infrastructure in Sochi and the
surrounding Krasnodar territory will face an elevated risk of attack."
Some
experts say the perpetrators could also have been targeting Russia's
pride by hitting the city formerly called Stalingrad, which is known for
the historic battle that turned the tide against Nazi Germany.
"Volgograd,
a symbol of Russia's suffering and victory in World War II, has been
singled out by the terrorist leaders precisely because of its status in
people's minds," Dmitry Trenin, the head of the Carnegie Endowment's
Moscow office, said in a commentary on the organization's website.
A
city of 1 million northeast of Sochi, Volgograd is a hub with railway
lines running in five directions across the country and numerous bus
routes connecting it to the volatile Caucasus provinces.
Security
checks on buses have remained largely symbolic and easily avoidable,
making them the transport of choice for terrorists in the region. And
tighter railway security isn't always enough to prevent casualties. In
Sunday's attack, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in front of the
train station's metal detectors, killing 17 people, including the
attacker.
Security at Russia's railway
stations and airports has been tightened after a male suicide bomber hit
Moscow's Domodedovo Airport in January 2011, killing 37 people and
injuring more than 180. Two bombings on the Moscow subway in March 2010
by female suicide bombers killed 40 people and wounded more than 120.
Umarov,
who had claimed responsibility for the 2010 and 2011 bombings, ordered a
halt to attacks on civilian targets during the mass demonstrations
against Putin in the winter of 2011-12. He reversed that order in July,
urging his men to "do their utmost to derail" the Sochi Olympics, which
he described as "satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors."
Aware
of the threat, the Sochi organizers have introduced some of the most
extensive identity checks and sweeping security measures ever seen at an
international sports event.
Anyone wanting to
attend the games will have to buy a ticket online from the organizers
and obtain a "spectator pass" for access. Doing so will require
providing passport details that allow authorities to screen all
visitors.
The security zone created around
Sochi stretches approximately 100 kilometers (60 miles) along the Black
Sea coast and up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) inland. Russian forces
including special troops will patrol the forested mountains flanking the
resort and use drones to keep a constant watch over Olympic facilities.
Speedboats will patrol the coast and sophisticated sonar will be used
to detect submarines.
Cars from outside the
Olympic zone will be banned beginning a month before the Winter Games,
and Sochi residents are already facing widespread identity checks.
The
White House said the U.S. would welcome "closer cooperation" with
Russia on security preparations for the safety of athletes, spectators
and other participants at the Olympics following the two attacks.
"The
U.S. government has offered our full support to the Russian government
in security preparations for the Sochi Olympic Games," White House
spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
Some observers have warned that terrorists may simply choose softer targets in the vicinity of Sochi to sow panic.
"Even
if they succeed in protecting Sochi, there could be a series of major
attacks near Sochi," Anatoly Yermolin, a veteran KGB officer, told Ekho
Moskvy radio.
Alexei Filatov, another veteran
of the Russian security forces, also predicted that terrorists will try
to step up their attacks before the Olympics.
"The
terrorist activities will increase as the Sochi Olympics get closer,
and they will get increasingly close to the area," Filatov wrote on his
blog. "For those who order terror attacks, it serves as an opportunity
to deal a blow to Russia on global stage."
Some
Russian commentators also have suggested that terrorists could have
planted sleeper agents in Sochi long before security was tightened.
Others indicated that terror groups could have rigged some Olympic
facilities with explosives during construction. Russian officials have
denied that could happen, citing stringent security controls at Olympic
construction sites.
Russian Olympic Committee
chief Alexander Zhukov insisted Monday that there was no need to take
any extra steps to secure Sochi in the wake of the Volgograd bombings
because "everything necessary already has been done."
International
Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach offered his condolences Monday
in a letter to Putin and expressed full confidence that Russia would
deliver "safe and secure games in Sochi."
At
the United Nations, the Security Council condemned the attacks as
"heinous and cowardly acts," and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke to
Putin by telephone, offering his condolences and stressing the
importance of international cooperation to fight terrorism, according to
the U.N. press office.
Russian authorities
ordered police to increase security at train stations and other
transportation facilities across the country. The heightened security
comes as Russians are preparing to celebrate the New Year, the nation's
main holiday.
In St. Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, the local governor canceled a New Year's fireworks show.
Vladimir
Markin, the spokesman for Russia's main investigative agency, the
Investigative Committee, said Monday's explosion involved a bomb similar
to the one used Sunday, indicating that the two attacks were linked.
Markin
said a suicide attacker was responsible for Monday's bus explosion that
killed at least 14 people. It was not clear if authorities counted the
bomber in their death toll.
In October, a suicide bombing on a bus in Volgograd killed six people.
