But see Frontpage Magazine, "Terror in Moscow":
The Kommersant newspaper says this photo, provided by the Russian news agency NewsTeam, shows Dzhanet Abdurakhmanova and husband Umalat Magomedov, who was killed by Russian troops last year. (NewsTeam)
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Moscow, the economic and cultural center of the Russian Federation, has once again endured the wrath of terrorists. At just before eight o’clock Monday morning, local time, a female suicide bomber detonated herself inside a subway car, killing dozens. Less than an hour later, and several stops down the line, another bomber detonated her explosive vest, killing over a dozen more. Based on the best information available as of press time, 38 have died, and more than one hundred are wounded.RTWT at the link.
These latest blows at the heart of the Russian state have as yet not been claimed, but the methods and targets credibly point to the so-called Black Widows. These women, the female relations of Muslim rebels killed by the Russian military during numerous counter-insurgency campaigns in the Caucasus, seek revenge on Russia by striking at the heart of its cities. These attacks come two months after Dokka Umarov, the leading Islamic Chechen military leader, warned that despite Russia’s claims to have stamped out his forces, his martyrs would soon strike at Russia’s cities. Though Umarov has not yet been definitively linked to the bombings, it seems his warning had merit.
Russia’s entanglement with numerous restive groups, many of them Muslim, in its strategically important Caucasus region is a horribly complex affair. For centuries, Russia has dominated the region, and with the fall of the Soviet Union, its grip has become far more tenuous as numerous factions vie for power. Some seek independence from Moscow, others seek its support. It is rarely clear whether or not the anti-Russian forces are motivated by an Islamist’s zeal for jihad or a nationalist’s hope to see the Caucasus, particularly Chechnya, free of Russian domination. In truth, a mixture of both motivates the rebels (Umarov himself has said he was first compelled to take up arms against Russia not in the same of Allah, but of Chechnya). While their ideology is muddled, their goal is clear: terrorize Russia until their dream of an independent, Muslim Caucasus is achieved.
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