Bombing renews fears in Russia
The incident was the latest in a string of more than a half a dozen suicide bombings in Russia this year that authorities have blamed on rebels from Chechnya, renewing fears that the war in Chechnya again was spilling onto Moscow's streets.
It struck opposite the main entrance to Red Square, which many regard as the symbolic center of Russia, raising questions about stability just two days after parliamentary elections cemented President Vladimir Putin's control of the government.
Only five days ago, a suicide bomber set off an explosion on a train in southern Russia, killing 44 people. But none of the other blasts has come so close to the Kremlin.
The blast, which had the power of more than 2 pounds of dynamite, shattered first- and second-story windows in the hotel and wrecked a late-model Mercedes sedan parked out front.
It scattered the grisly remains of its victims along the snow-dusted sidewalk, witnesses said, including the body of the suspected bomber, a woman wearing a long coat.
The dead and injured included four 19-year-olds, at least some of them students at Moscow State University, the Itar-Tass news service reported.
Debris sprayed across Mokhovaya Street, striking several visitors in the complex of gardens and plazas just outside the Kremlin walls. Police at first suggested that the attack might have been connected with a business dispute. But investigators later said they found the remains of a "suicide belt" loaded with metal ball-bearings and explosive, raising suspicions it was connected to Chechen rebels.
It struck just before 11 a.m., as Putin was preparing to speak with regional leaders at a meeting to mark the 10th anniversary of Russia's constitution, celebrated Friday.
Chechen rebels had reportedly threatened to stage attacks to disrupt national elections Sunday, when Putin supporters won substantial control of the 450 seats in parliament, essentially granting the Russian president a mandate to continue his economic reforms and the slow wind-down of the war in Chechnya.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov told the Interfax news agency that the bomber had asked passers-by for the location of the parliament, or Duma, which is headquartered in a gray Soviet-era structure a block east of where the explosion occurred.
"Evidently, the bomb went off by accident," he said.
Police said they are seeking a second suspect, a short woman in her early 40s who might have set off the bomb by remote control.
Over the past year, almost 300 people have been killed in Russia in bombings and other attacks blamed on separatists from the Russian republic of Chechnya, in the northern Caucasus mountains.
Yesterday's attack was the second time this year suicide bombers struck in Moscow.
In July, two female suicide bombers detonated explosives at a rock concert on the city's outskirts, killing 15 other people and injuring 60.
Five days later, a 22-year-old widow of a Chechen killed in the republic's separatist conflict walked into a downtown Moscow restaurant carrying a bag with a pound of explosives, but was arrested before she could detonate the bomb.
Despite the Kremlin's efforts to write a new constitution for the separatist republic, elect a new Chechen president and resettle refugees back into Grozny, the capital, rebel attacks against Russian troops persist, and the war has moved onto Moscow's own turf.
One of its most frightening trademarks has been the female suicide bombers, known as "black widows" in the Russian media, who are reportedly trained in rebel camps to launch attacks in revenge for lost husbands, brothers and fathers.
Chechen rebels seeking a negotiated settlement to the conflict have repeatedly denied involvement in the terrorist attacks and accused the Kremlin of secretly organizing them to win public support for a hard-line military approach in the southern republic.
Compiled from Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times reports.