Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov Arrives in Dagestan

MOSCOW, September 5, 2010 (RIA Novosti)

Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov arrived in Dagestan to order measures to help those injured in the suicide bombing in Buinaksk.

A defense ministry's plane carrying a team of military doctors has left Moscow for Makhachkala, Col. Alexei Kuznetsov, official spokesman for the Defense Ministry said. A team of experienced doctors to help the injured will soon take off from St. Petersburg, he added.

Two blasts hit the Dagestan's city of Buinaksk on Sunday. Early in the morning a car packed with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber detonated near Buinaksk after ramming the gates of a military unit. Later, a second bomb exploded in Buinaksk on the way of police officers heading to the site of the first blast. Five people were killed in the bombing; over thirty received wounds of varying severity.

A plane with 15 servicemen, injured in the bombing arrived in the city of Rostov, where they will receive medical treatment.

Dagestan's head Magomedsalam Magomedov is currently in Buinaksk.

Five killed in N.Caucasus suicide car bombing

MAKHACHKALA, September 5, 2010 (RIA Novosti)

Five people were killed and over 30 injured in Sunday's attack on a military unit in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, a law enforcement source reported.

A Zhiguli car packed with explosives and driven by a suicide bomber detonated near the town of Buinaksk after ramming the gates of the military unit, making part of the 136th motorized rifle brigade, early on Sunday. The unit's guard blocked the car, preventing a larger death toll.

Reports of the number of injured by different sources varied from 33 to 39. Many of those injured were in serious condition.

The Defense Ministry said three people were killed.

A law enforcement source said the power of the explosive device was equivalent to up to 100 kg of TNT.

A second explosion rocked the town as investigators were heading to the site. The second bomb exploded on the way of a police car after the car passed the place where the bomb was planted, so no one was killed or injured.

A Defense Ministry spokesman said the ministry has dispatched a special commission led by acting Southern Military District commander Maj. Gen. Alexander Galkin to the site of the terrorist attack.

An investigation is underway.

Servicemen in Buinaksk have repeatedly come under terrorist attacks. In July this year, servicemen of the 136th motorized rifle brigade came under fire. Three people were killed.

In 2007, an explosive device planted on the roadside detonated when the brigade's servicemen were returning from military exercises. Two were killed and two injured.

Eleven years ago, in September 1999, terrorists used a truck packed with explosives to blow up a residential building in Buinaksk killing 64 people. In a few days two residential buildings in the cities of Moscow and Volgodonsk were blown up killing over 200 people.

Sporadic terrorist attacks and militant clashes are common in Russia's largely Muslim North Caucasus republics, especially Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia.

The Kremlin has pledged to wage "a ruthless fight" against militant groups but also acknowledged a need to tackle unemployment, organized crime, clan rivalry and corruption as causes of the ongoing violence in the region.