Chechen Suicide Bombers Kill At Least 20 In Russia

The Russians are reporting that a massive truck bomb killed at least 20 in the Caucasus Mt. city of Nazran. The truck barreled through barricades and slammed in to the police station, exploding.

The attacker on Monday rammed the truck through the gates of the Nazran city police headquarters, in Ingushetia province, and detonated about 440 pounds of explosives as police officers were lining up for a morning check, said Svetlana Gorbakova of the regional branch of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's office.

Police had fired shots at the truck, but failed to stop it. The blast triggered a raging fire that destroyed a weapons room where ammunition detonated.

It took rescue teams several hours to search for victims in the ruins. A nearby apartment building and several office buildings were also damaged, and burned-out cars littered the street. The attacker and the truck were pulverized by the blast, Gorbakova said.

At least 20 people were killed and 60 wounded, she said, though official figures on the number of wounded varied. Ruslan Koloyev, the acting head of the Emergency Ministry's branch in Ingushetia, said on Rossiya television that 92 people were injured.

Chechen rebels led by Doku Umarov may have been behind the attack and have been active in the area, nearly killing the president of Ingushetia in a terror attack in June.