Wednesday, March 31, 2010

SUSPECTED ISLAMIC GROUP DENIES BOMBING MOSCOW

The organisation thought to be responsible for the Moscow bombs has denied its involvement. The Caucasus Emirate did however admit its intention to attack economic targets inside Russia, but not to target civilians.

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From http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLDE62U0V2._CH_.2420

Islamist group says not behind Moscow bombs
Wed Mar 31, 2010 1:33pm BST

ISTANBUL, March 31 (Reuters) - A militant Islamist separatist group led by a prominent Chechen rebel denied responsibility on Wednesday for bombings that killed 39 people in two Moscow metro stations.

"We did not carry out the attack in Moscow, and we don't know who did it," Shemsettin Batukaev, a spokesman for the Caucasus Emirate organisation, told Reuters by telephone in Turkey.

The spokesman said the group planned attacks on economic targets inside Russia, but not against civilians. Its leader, Doku Umarov, vowed last month to spread a Caucasian insurgency to Russian cities.

The Caucusus Emirate aims to create a pan-Caucasus, sharia-based state separate from Russia. Security analysts have named it as a potential suspect in Monday's attacks, which Russian authorities have blamed on female suicide bombers with connections to the volatile North Caucasus region.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for Moscow's worst bomb attack in six years.

"Of course we plan on attacking Russian economic targets, but our plans do not include attacks on people," said Batukaev, who lives in Istanbul and acts as the group's foreign representative.

He said that he did not know who was behind two bombings in Dagestan that killed 12 people on Wednesday, but did not deny the possibility that his organisation was involved. (Reporting by Thomas Grove, editing by Mark Trevelyan)



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