RUSSIA: Russian authorities declared today a day of mourning for the 14 victims of Tuesday's double bus bombing in Chechnya, the worst terror attack in the province this year.
The dead include a child blown off his bike and two teenagers who were on a minibus that took the full force of an improvised bomb, made from a stolen Russian artillery shell. Five policemen also died in the blast.
When rescue workers and police rushed to the scene, a second device went off - reportedly concealed in a four-wheel drive - killing several rescue workers.
The bombers had placed the corpse of a dead Russian soldier at the wheel, apparently so the parked vehicle would not attract attention.
Twenty people were wounded in the bombing, which came a few weeks before what will be the sixth anniversary of Russia's war in Chechnya.
Chechnya's Moscow-backed president, Alu Alkhanov, said rebel commander Shamil Basayev was to blame, but insisted the province was under "full control" of security forces.
The attack has underlined not just the continued threat of the Chechen rebels, but also their potency - the bombing came in the northwest village of Znamenskoye, far from areas of rebel activity in a zone which was previously regarded as "safe". That epithet cannot now be levelled at any part of the battered province.
Despite the authorities' claim that "normalisation" has taken hold in the province, the region remains at war. Russian forces are also battling insurgents in three neighbouring provinces, in a complex series of struggles which are cross-cut with banditry, kidnappings and gang warfare.
Russian president Vladimir Putin is not expected to offer any fresh initiatives for ending the war.
He told his cabinet this week that whatever military actions were planned, "we need to do it and as soon as possible.".