Terrorism in Russia (merged thread)

[Tukhachevskii]

Doku Umarov...has claimed responsibility for the Moscow attacks (intriguingly the piece makes no direct mention of him claiming responsibility for the attacks in Dagestan). If his group was behind it it could be intended as a message following the assasination of Said Buryatsky earlier last month. Althout it is more likely that Umarov merely whiches to re-assert/assert his authority over the traditionally independant minded jamaats. Given that his authority may have diminished for lack of activity (or the perception of activity) the jamaats may have spun out of his (nominal) control and upped the ante off their own bat.

On a related note the Russian armed forces have revived the concept of armoured trains in an effort to stem growing attacks on the railways infrastructure in the Chechnya region;

A review of recent attacks on railway infrastructure gives some sense of the growing problem:

• One person was killed in an explosion on railroad tracks near the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala on February 10. The bomb appears to have gone off prematurely, narrowly missing an incoming freight train carrying 20 tankers full of jet fuel .

• Militants fired two shots from a grenade launcher at militia quarters in the railway station at Nazran (Ingushetia) on February 2 (Chechenpress, February 2).

• Federal Security Service (FSB) forces in Dagestan announced the killing of a veteran Egyptian jihadist who had targeted railway infrastructure in the North Caucasus. Mahmud Muhammad Shaaban was killed in a shootout on February 2 (RIA Novosti, February 3).

• A cargo train including oil tankers was derailed by an explosion in Nazran on January 4 (Caucasian Knot, January 4).

• On November 30, 2009, a bomb went off under the Tyumen-Baku train in Dagestan, damaging the locomotive (The Moscow Times, December 1, 2009; ITAR-TASS, November 30, 2009).

• The Nevsky Express running between Moscow and St. Petersburg was derailed by a reported explosion on November 27. The FSB estimated seven kilograms of explosives were used (RIA Novosti, November 28). Though the Caucasus mujahideen claimed the explosion was carried out under the orders of their amir Dokka Umarov, elements of the police and many observers questioned the ability of the rebels to conduct such an operation. The mujahideen’s message included threats to carry out further attacks on rail lines and other Russian infrastructure.

• An explosion damaged the rail line between Makhachkala and Baku and set fire to a locomotive on November 26, 2009 (ITAR-TASS, November 26).

• A landmine blew up a section of rail in Makhachkala as a locomotive passed over on October 25 (Interfax, October 25).

• A section of the Baku-Rostov rail line near Makhachkala was destroyed by a bomb blast on October 12.

• A sapper was killed by an explosion on the rail line south of Makhachkala on July 2. The bombing occurred as a repair crew arrived to fix track destroyed earlier that day in another explosion (RIA Novosti, July 2, 2009).