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Double suicide bombings on rush-hour Moscow train

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KaolTamalak
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29 Mar 2010, 11:38 am

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/1003 ... bway_blast

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MOSCOW - Female suicide bombers blew themselves up Monday in twin attacks on Moscow subway stations packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 38 people and wounding more than 60, officials said. The carnage blamed on rebels from the Caucasus region follows the killings of several high-profile Islamic militant leaders there.

The blasts come six years after Islamic separatists from the southern Russian region carried out a pair of deadly Moscow subway strikes and raise concerns that the war has once again come to the capital, amid militants' warnings of a renewed determination to push their fight.

Chechen rebels claimed responsibility for a deadly bombing late last year on a passenger train en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Last month, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov warned Russians in an interview on a rebel-affiliated Web site that "the war is coming to their cities."

The first explosion took place just before 8 a.m. at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow. The station is underneath the building that houses the main offices of the Federal Security Service, the KGB's main successor agency, a symbol of power under Vladimir Putin.

About 45 minutes later, a second explosion hit the Park Kultury station, which is near the renowned Gorky Park. In both cases, the bombs were detonated as the trains pulled into the stations and the doors were opening.

"I heard a bang, turned my head and smoke was everywhere. People ran for the exits screaming," said 24-year-old Alexander Vakulov, who was on a train on the platform opposite the targeted train at Park Kultury.

"I saw a dead person for the first time in my life," said Valentin Popov, 19, who had just arrived at the station from the opposite direction.

Prime Minister Putin, who built much of his political capital by directing a fierce war with Chechen separatists a decade ago, vowed Monday that "terrorists will be destroyed."

Moscow is unlikely to hit back at the rebels with massive firepower: The Kremlin has installed loyal leaders in the areas where the militants operate, making bombing campaigns of the kind used in the 1990s Chechen wars out of the question.

The Kremlin is already engaged in a huge escalation of its operations to smash the rebels, and it is difficult to see what more it could do.

The iconic Moscow subway system is the world's second-busiest after Tokyo's, carrying around 7 million passengers on an average workday, and is a key element in running the sprawling and traffic-choked city.

Russian TV showed amateur video from inside the Lubyanka station of wounded and possibly dead victims sitting and lying on the floor. The train platform was filled with smoke. The LifeNews.ru site showed gruesome photos of dead passengers sprawled inside a mangled subway car and a bloody leg lying on a station platform.

Outside both stations, passengers flooded out, many of them crying and making frantic calls on their cellphones. The wounded were loaded into ambulances and helicopters, some with their heads wrapped in bloody bandages, as sirens wailed.

The last confirmed terrorist attack in Moscow was in August 2004, when a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a subway station, killing 10 people. Responsibility for that blast was claimed by Chechen rebels.

A more devastating attack took place in February of that year, when a suicide bomber from the North Caucasus set off explosives during morning rush hour as it travelled between stations. More than 40 people were killed and more than 100 wounded.

Russian police have killed several Islamic militant leaders in the North Caucasus recently, including one last week in the Kabardino-Balkariya region, which has raised fears of retaliatory strikes by the militants.

The militants receive moral and perhaps financial support from al-Qaida. Dozens of contributors to three Web sites affiliated with al-Qaida wrote comments in praise of Monday's attacks.

One site opened a special page to "receive congratulations" for the Chechen rebels who "started the dark tunnel attacks in the apostate countries," and all wished for God to accept the two sisters as martyrs.

"Don't forget Russia's crimes of genocide in the Caucasus and Chechnya," said one writer. "The battle has been shifted to the heart of Moscow," another wrote.

In a televised meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev, Federal Security Service head Alexander Bortnikov said body fragments of the two bombers pointed to a Caucasus connection. The bombers have not been identified and Bortnikov did not elaborate.

"We will continue the fight against terrorism unswervingly and to the end," Medvedev said.

Neither he nor Putin, who was on an official trip in Siberia, announced specific measures and it was not clear if Russia has new strategies to unleash in the Caucasus, where violent separatism has spread from Chechnya into neighbouring republics.

Although the Russian army battered Chechen rebels in massive assaults a decade ago, the separatists continue to move through the region's mountains and forests with comparative ease and launch frequent small attacks.

New York's transit system beefed up security as a precaution following the Moscow bombings. A spokesman for New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Kevin Ortiz, said the agency has a "heightened security presence," but declined further comment.

The agency is in charge of New York City buses and subways, as well as suburban trains, and bridges and tunnels. In London and Madrid, two other cities that have suffered transit system terror attacks, officials said there were no immediate plans to tighten security.

At 4 p.m., the two Moscow subway stations reopened and dozens boarded the waiting trains.

"It's really terrifying," said Vasily Vlastinin, 16. "It's become dangerous to ride the metro, but I'll keep taking the metro. You have to get to school, to college, to work somehow."

Both stations had been scrubbed clean. Holes left by shrapnel in the granite were the only reminder of the day's tragic bombings.



ruveyn
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29 Mar 2010, 11:48 am

The explosion of the suicide bomb is the latest call to prayer for the Martyrs.

Allah hu akbar! Ka Boom.

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29 Mar 2010, 11:52 am

It is just a matter of time before this happens in the New York City subways.

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29 Mar 2010, 12:32 pm

Well at least I don't live in either of those places.

Never did understand the Islamic perspective of martyrism at least when it comes to the accomplishment of taking the lives of other people along with them.


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29 Mar 2010, 12:43 pm

this disaster does sound a lot like the tragedies in London and Madrid. it is very sad that in this sick world, no one is even safe outside of their homes anymore. my mom used to ride the subway alone when she was 12 without having to worry about terrorism or murders or abductions. lets hope that most of the wounded passengers heal well, although with such a severe incidence that is unlikely to happen.

I also find the ideology that jihadists are chosen by god to commit violent acts very disturbing. i have nothing against islam in general and i know several muslims where i go to college, yet obviously, terrorism is not a diplomatic way to solve conflicts. it only makes conflicts escalate and jihadists are arbitrarily blaming populations as a whole and harming civilians for issues which stem more from governments (such as that in Moscow) and corporations.



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30 Mar 2010, 4:34 pm

Who's next? Canada? :?


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30 Mar 2010, 4:49 pm

Uh, hello this is just speculation. No one knows for sure who actually did it. But of course you have all been brainwashed so well, and I'm sure the first thing that popped in your mind was "who else?". Remember what happened on 9/11. It must be Osama bin laden.

Wake up, even the FBI have no evidence to support this allegation. Look on their website, if you don't believe me.

Muslims are not a bunch of stupid idiots. They know suicide bombing only serves the purposes of those who claim to be victims. I quote Benyamin Netanyahu, "We benefited most from 9/11".

No one knows for sure, who or why this was done. And yes Mr. ruveyn before you give me a stupid answer based on your hatred of Muslims, don't forget that when America and Israel bomb Iraq, Afghanistan, and Gaza on a daily basis, it's not call terrorism it's called national security.



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31 Mar 2010, 5:50 am

Actually my first thought was the Chechens, who are the usual suspects when terror hits Russia. I doubt many people at all are trying to hang this on AQ or UBL.


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31 Mar 2010, 7:04 am

Dox47 wrote:
Actually my first thought was the Chechens, who are the usual suspects when terror hits Russia. I doubt many people at all are trying to hang this on AQ or UBL.


My point is that people always jump to conclusions. Muslims are presumed guilty before innocent. Whenever there's a bomb blast somewhere, there is never an official inquiry, but instead a Muslim or Muslim organisation is blamed and the world takes it at that. No one investigates how the event happened, and how the usual security was breached. Just one allegation is enough for everyone to be convinced as to who the perpetrators were. Bombs go off everyday in the Middle East and Muslims are the targets of those. But no one talks about Western Jihaddists. Because the concept is solely attached to Muslims. More people die at the hands of Western armies than the combined total of all supposed suicide attacks. That's a fact.

MissConstrue wrote:
Well at least I don't live in either of those places.

Never did understand the Islamic perspective of martyrism at least when it comes to the accomplishment of taking the lives of other people along with them.


What drives this behaviour has got nothing to do with Islam. These are people who are oppressed and fight back. Yes some people associate this oppression with the fact that they are on the receiving end because they are Muslim. But the point here is that Chechnyans live like animals due to the the way the Russians treat them. If no one believes me watch this...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHVKSW6NKPk

This is what sparks violence, not the religion. People must understand that. If you oppress anyone, they will fight back. Think of the French Revolution. The Nobility and the Upper classes totally oppressed the lower classes. That's what gave rise to the revolt. Not the fact that the lower classes followed a violent religion.I'm sure many peasants believed God was on their side too. As I said in the PPR forum, it's not faith that causes this behaviour, it's the oppression by bully nations on others which does. If no one believes me that the Palestinians are being oppressed then watch this.

http://freeviewdocumentaries.com/2010/03/05/dispatches-the-killing-zone/#more-1548

When you see it from this point of you your perception changes.



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31 Mar 2010, 8:49 am

i_wanna_blue wrote:
My point is that people always jump to conclusions.


Chechens have been carrying out terrorist attacks on Russians for some time now. Provisionally attributing this one to them is hardly a novel conclusion.

Quote:
Muslims are presumed guilty before innocent.


Plenty of Muslims are only too happy to take responsibility for terrorist attacks, and moreover, to state that their reasons for carrying out those attacks were because of their religion. Especially when they leave behind cheerful video messages saying "I dunnit, it was me, guv, and it's because of my Muslim faith that I feel I have to go killing random people with a suicide bomb."

These people are not representative of Muslims in general, but that does not mean that Islamic ideology is not part of the problem. The huge number of decent Muslims are so in spite of the misogynistic, xenophobic, Dark Age design for life that they're subjected to by the religion.

Quote:
Whenever there's a bomb blast somewhere, there is never an official inquiry but instead a Muslim or Muslim organisation is blamed and the world takes it at that.


People are usually content to attribute blame to people when they claim it for themselves. AQ, for instance, are not the hydra-like pan-Islamic megaorganisation that Western governments, the media, and they themselves would like to believe they are, but when they regularly claim responsibility for attacks and threaten to carry out more, of course they are blamed.

Quote:
No one investigates how the event happened, and how the usual security was breached. Just one allegation is enough for everyone to be convinced as to who the perpetrators were.


8O If only that were the case. Look at all the people who are so convinced of the power of their own government that they can't believe that you can hijack a plane with a bunch of loonies and a Stanley knife. It's too shocking for them to face the idea that the US isn't invulnerable that they spin themselves conspiracy fantasies, shifting the blame so that they can at least continue to believe in their own superiority. It's easier for them to think that "this could never happen unless the government allowed it, it happened, therefore the government allowed it" than to face the truth that the government couldn't stop their enemies. :roll:

The fact of the matter is simple: we, the West, are vulnerable to terrorists, and we always will be. That's it. "The usual security" is not good enough to stop them every time, and in all likelihood can never be so in a free society. We should be grateful that they don't display much imagination, because there's a whole load of much nastier things one could do than simply blow a few people to bits with a suicide bomb. :?

Quote:
Bombs go off everyday in the Middle East and Muslims are the targets of those.


Indeed. But the aim of the Western militaries is not indiscriminate carnage. They are, by and large, very, very careful, to the great detriment of their fighting power. If they went full-out the death toll would be obscene. Our soldiers, on our behest, have a very fine and dangerous balance to find. The difficulty of the job we give them should not be trivialised to caricature them as gung-ho barbarians out for slaughter. :evil:

Quote:
But no one talks about Western Jihaddists. Because the concept is solely attached to Muslims.


Jihad is a word with specific meaning in Islam. Of course it isn't used to refer to non-Muslims. :?


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31 Mar 2010, 10:12 am

Chechens have been carrying out terrorist attacks on Russians for some time now. Provisionally attributing this one to them is hardly a novel conclusion.


Have you ever asked why that is. It's because they are oppressed by the Russians. You see that's where I can never understand westerners. You act as if your way is the right way, and if someone is opposed to your oppression, then they are the in the wrong for fighting back. Chechens don't just wake up in the morning deciding to fight with Russia, for the sake of it. You see it's wrong for the Chechens to blast a bomb in Moscow, but for the Russian army to obliterate the Chechens is fine. Muslims are always violent and throw the first blow.


Plenty of Muslims are only too happy to take responsibility for terrorist attacks, and moreover, to state that their reasons for carrying out those attacks were because of their religion. Especially when they leave behind cheerful video messages saying "I dunnit, it was me, guv, and it's because of my Muslim faith that I feel I have to go killing random people with a suicide bomb."

Well , you can believe what you want to. If BBC told you that Osam Bin Laden said he want's to kill Americans, then you will obviously believe it. You not gonna get a recording of the tape, get a translator and verify the story. So whatever mainstream media shows you is taken as fact.

These people are not representative of Muslims in general, but that does not mean that Islamic ideology is not part of the problem. The huge number of decent Muslims are so in spite of the misogynistic, xenophobic, Dark Age design for life that they're subjected to by the religion.

Well that's your opinion. I'm a Muslim myself, and I don't feel as if Islam is a religion of the Dark ages. The Dark Ages only occurred in Europe, and pretty much all the knowledge acquired by the Arabs came after Islam. The only reason Europe came out pf the Dark Ages was to scientific knowledge obtained by the Muslim world. You see you are brought up believing that you should do as you please. We are not. But that doesn't mean that the religion is "too old school". Xenophobic? Misogynistic? You've got to be kidding? Firstly unlike Judaism, Islam isn't for a certain race or people, it's for everyone. There are black Muslims from Africa, whites Muslims from Europe, any colour or nationality you can think of. The Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) himself said that Arabs are not superior to any race. Only piety is what separates people.

As far as being a religion which is misogynistic, just try and find out how many rapes and murders of women occur in the Islamic world compared to the western world. I bet you the number is way, way lower. Just because we are told not to view women as sex objects does not make women oppressed, but again, you can believe what you want to.

People are usually content to attribute blame to people when they claim it for themselves. AQ, for instance, are not the hydra-like pan-Islamic megaorganisation that Western governments, the media, and they themselves would like to believe they are, but when they regularly claim responsibility for attacks and threaten to carry out more, of course they are blamed.

Again, you can believe what you're told. You know Americans do the same. Only it's called a 'Press Conference'.


Quote:
No one investigates how the event happened, and how the usual security was breached. Just one allegation is enough for everyone to be convinced as to who the perpetrators were.


8O If only that were the case. Look at all the people who are so convinced of the power of their own government that they can't believe that you can hijack a plane with a bunch of loonies and a Stanley knife. It's too shocking for them to face the idea that the US isn't invulnerable that they spin themselves conspiracy fantasies, shifting the blame so that they can at least continue to believe in their own superiority. It's easier for them to think that "this could never happen unless the government allowed it, it happened, therefore the government allowed it" than to face the truth that the government couldn't stop their enemies. :roll:

The fact of the matter is simple: we, the West, are vulnerable to terrorists, and we always will be. That's it. "The usual security" is not good enough to stop them every time, and in all likelihood can never be so in a free society. We should be grateful that they don't display much imagination, because there's a whole load of much nastier things one could do than simply blow a few people to bits with a suicide bomb. :?


By terrorist you mean Muslims, of course. You see Islam does not breed terrorism, your western governments do. Please take a look at the videos I posted, and then tell me that people are not going to fight back after they have been wronged. If terrorism was so easy to inflict why doesn't anyone decide to do something worse and on a grander scale? They can't. Your governments are shrewder than you think.


Quote:
Bombs go off everyday in the Middle East and Muslims are the targets of those.


Indeed. But the aim of the Western militaries is not indiscriminate carnage. They are, by and large, very, very careful, to the great detriment of their fighting power. If they went full-out the death toll would be obscene. Our soldiers, on our behest, have a very fine and dangerous balance to find. The difficulty of the job we give them should not be trivialised to caricature them as gung-ho barbarians out for slaughter. :evil:

I saw a tape where new US recruits were singing in a warcry that they "want to kill somebody", and you think that your armies show discretion? I'm sorry if you were to see how life is like living in Gaza, you would realise that they are truly victims of terrorism. Just watch the video, if you don't believe me.

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<WATCH THIS!! !! !! !! !! !! !>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Jihad is a word with specific meaning in Islam. Of course it isn't used to refer to non-Muslims. :?[/quote]


That's exactly my point. Do you think that the only people who fight "in the name of God" are Muslims? And by the way Jihad does not mean Holy War, as you are led to believe it means 'struggle'. The struggle each person goes through when fighting his desire to commit sin.

I do hope you can watch the vids I posted. Then you will see that oppression is the reason behind all of this.Sometimes people claim to be doing it because of their faith, but again it's got nothing to do with the believes that Islam teaches.



Last edited by i_wanna_blue on 31 Mar 2010, 6:12 pm, edited 4 times in total.

raisedbyignorance
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31 Mar 2010, 3:51 pm

How does a major world city like Moscow have THE WORST homeland security in the world? I mean, remember how they handled the Moscow theatre incident? They ended up killing nearly all the people there compared to the terrorists killing only like a handful.

I would love to travel to Russia someday but if I can't even feel safe in a city like Moscow then...damn...



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03 Apr 2010, 8:34 am

raisedbyignorance wrote:
How does a major world city like Moscow have THE WORST homeland security in the world? I mean, remember how they handled the Moscow theatre incident? They ended up killing nearly all the people there compared to the terrorists killing only like a handful.

I would love to travel to Russia someday but if I can't even feel safe in a city like Moscow then...damn...


One of the reasons is that the government has pi**ed off so many people. Greater Russia consists of many different nationalities some of which desire independence and some of which have been treated badly in the past. Chechnaya is the main example. The Chechens are a mainly Muslim (but non Arabic) lot. What Russia should do is build a fence around Chechnaya and legally declare it a zoo.

ruveyn



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03 Apr 2010, 1:52 pm

ruveyn wrote:
What Russia should do is build a fence around Chechnaya and legally declare it a zoo.

ruveyn


Your hatred truly has no bounds. So disappointing.:hmph: And people think Muslims are ones who hold in hatred. :roll:



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03 Apr 2010, 2:47 pm

i_wanna_blue wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
What Russia should do is build a fence around Chechnaya and legally declare it a zoo.

ruveyn


Your hatred truly has no bounds. So disappointing.:hmph: And people think Muslims are ones who hold in hatred. :roll:


Religion whether it be muslim, christian, judaism....they all uphold a great degree of hatred and accountablity toward one another. I don't see any justice whether it was a muslim, christian, or whatever to kill innocent people for a "cause" whether it was out of oppression or not. When innocent civilians are involved, let's just say the act isn't going to be seen in the most positive light.


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03 Apr 2010, 4:18 pm

MissConstrue wrote:
i_wanna_blue wrote:
ruveyn wrote:
What Russia should do is build a fence around Chechnaya and legally declare it a zoo.

ruveyn


Your hatred truly has no bounds. So disappointing.:hmph: And people think Muslims are ones who hold in hatred. :roll:


Religion whether it be muslim, christian, judaism....they all uphold a great degree of hatred and accountablity toward one another. I don't see any justice whether it was a muslim, christian, or whatever to kill innocent people for a "cause" whether it was out of oppression or not. When innocent civilians are involved, let's just say the act isn't going to be seen in the most positive light.


Look, I absolutely don't defend innocent people getting killed. But, my point is that Russia's or Israels oppression kills innocent people too. And I know, this is gonna sound childish, but they are the ones who started it. It's as simple as that. It's not only terrorists who are oppressed who kill innocent people. For every 1 Israeli killed, 200 Palestinians die. They are also innocent. My point here, is that everyone is concerned (as they should be) when innocent people die. But western armies kill innocent people too. It seems to me that only Muslims are supposed killers of the innocent people. That is not true. As I said before, more people die at the hands of western armies than all victims of terrorism combined. That's a fact. I'm not saying that the measures they use, be it suicide bombing or anything else is right, it's not right. It's completely wrong.


But so is the oppression that sparked the violent backlash. If you don't oppress people, they won't fight you in the first place. Doesn't anyone understand that. Look, I posted that documentary about GAZA for a reason. Did anyone even watch it??????
Well if you did you would see, that Palestinians live in a cage, like animals, and receive no support from anyone, because countries are too afraid to say anything about Israel. What do you think is going to happen next? People are gonna start becoming violent. If you are so afraid about violence don't give people the reason to exact revenge.

If nobody can see that, then I'm sorry but that is just disturbing.

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/focusongaza/2009/04/200942111646519447.html

Isn't this also terrorism killing innocent people? Terrorism is a TWO WAY STREET. NOT JUST A ONE WAY< LIKE EVERYONE BELIEVES. Please somebody tell me you understand that??????

Look at how Iraq has become. And for what? They played no role in September 11th. The situation is worse now that it used to be under Saddam. But it's not regarded as killing innocent people or creating violence which was never there before the war. Why? Because George Bush and Tony Blair approved of it. 150, 000 civilians have been killed. Yes 150, 000.! !! !! !

Isn't this gonna cause more violence towards the west? And yet every time it happens people act surprised, as if these people have no reason to retaliate. Again how they retaliate is wrong. But if you don't want them to retaliate don't destroy the lives of people who are normally against violence.