In the span of 24 hours, two suicide bombers have attacked the southern Russian city of Volgograd, killing at least 31 people.
The attacks highlight the terror threat the country faces as it prepares to host the Winter Games in six weeks.
According to USA Today:
A suicide bomber on a bus early Monday in Volgograd killed at least 14 people and left nearly 30 wounded, Russian officials said, a day after another suicide bombing killed at least 17 at a railway station in the city.
A spokesman for Russia’s main investigative agency, Vladimir Markin, said Monday’s blast involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday’s attack.
“That confirms the investigators’ version that the two terror attacks were linked,” Markin said in a statement. “They could have been prepared in one place.”
As of yet, no one has claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks. However, the bombings came just months after Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for attacks against civilian targets in Russia.
Umarov, leader of a terrorist group that calls itself the Caucasus Emirate, has called on Muslims to disrupt the Olympics, which will be held in Sochi.
“If you are a terrorist group in the Caucasus, the Sochi Olympics are going to be a very inviting target,” says Steven Pifer of the Brookings Institution’s Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative.
Some Muslim terrorists view the Olympics as a provocation, says Jeffrey Mankoff of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Russia and Eurasia Program. Sochi was conquered in the 19th century. “They view it as a provocation on territory they consider stolen from Muslims,” he says.
To combat growing violence and concern over more terrorist threats, the government has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers, police and other security personnel for the Games.
An investigation into the attacks continues. We’ll keep you updated on the latest.
SOURCE: USA Today | VIDEO SOURCE: News, Inc.
