MOSCOW (Reuters) - A woman suicide bomber ambushed a bus carrying Russian air force pilots near rebel Chechnya (news - web sites) on Thursday, blowing it up and killing at least 13 people, the defense ministry said.
The attack was the third in three weeks by women suicide guerrillas fighting for Chechen independence and came on the eve of a Russian parliament vote on a partial amnesty for rebel fighters designed to improve prospects for a Kremlin peace plan.
The attack occurred in Russia's North Ossetia region, bordering Muslim Chechnya, after the bus carrying the pilots and a group of civilians attached to the air force slowed down at a railway crossing on the outskirts of Mozdok.
"A terrorist-suicide woman blew it up," defense ministry spokesman Nikolai Deryabin said in Moscow. "According to preliminary information, there are 13 dead and 14 wounded."
Local officials gave a higher death toll of 15. Air force officials, quoted by Interfax news agency, said eight servicemen were among the dead, including four air force officers.
President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), who came to power in 2000 on pledges to crush the Chechen rebellion but is still wrestling with the problem now 10 months before he seeks re-election, had been informed of the new attack, the Kremlin said.
North Ossetia is the springboard for Russian military operations in Chechnya and has escaped relatively unscathed from violence since the conflict erupted in 1994.
Russian officials said given two similar suicide attacks, they were assuming this was the work of a Chechen rebel group.
On May 12 a woman was part of a group that drove a truck packed with explosives into a government complex in Znamenskoye in northern Chechnya, killing 59 people.
Two days later a woman blew herself up at a Muslim festival in another part of Chechnya in an attempt on the life of Moscow's top official, killing at least 16 people. DOORS CLOSED
A justice official said the woman suicide bomber had apparently intended to board the bus carrying air force pilots and civilian workers from Mozdok to an air base six kms away.
"The bus stopped to pick up some people going to work. The 'martyr-woman' approached when the doors had already closed," said Sergei Fridinsky, deputy general prosecutor.
"Her original intention had been to get into the bus and, since she could not open the doors, she blew herself up along side it," he told ORT television.
Chechen separatist warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the two suicide attacks last month and threatened "a whirlwind" of violence in the future.
Chechnya's fugitive separatist president, Aslan Maskhadov said this month that his guerrillas would mount a summer campaign against Russian troops.
Last March the Kremlin, as part of its blueprint to solve the conflict, staged a constitutional referendum that anchored the territory in Russia and has set dates for parliamentary and presidential elections there in the future.
As part of the plan the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, was to take a final vote on Friday to bring a partial amnesty into force.
Chechen rebels and human rights groups have ridiculed the limitations of the amnesty offer, saying it excludes hard-core fighters while benefiting many Russian servicemen suspected of abuses in the region
The attack was the third in three weeks by women suicide guerrillas fighting for Chechen independence and came on the eve of a Russian parliament vote on a partial amnesty for rebel fighters designed to improve prospects for a Kremlin peace plan.
The attack occurred in Russia's North Ossetia region, bordering Muslim Chechnya, after the bus carrying the pilots and a group of civilians attached to the air force slowed down at a railway crossing on the outskirts of Mozdok.
"A terrorist-suicide woman blew it up," defense ministry spokesman Nikolai Deryabin said in Moscow. "According to preliminary information, there are 13 dead and 14 wounded."
Local officials gave a higher death toll of 15. Air force officials, quoted by Interfax news agency, said eight servicemen were among the dead, including four air force officers.
President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites), who came to power in 2000 on pledges to crush the Chechen rebellion but is still wrestling with the problem now 10 months before he seeks re-election, had been informed of the new attack, the Kremlin said.
North Ossetia is the springboard for Russian military operations in Chechnya and has escaped relatively unscathed from violence since the conflict erupted in 1994.
Russian officials said given two similar suicide attacks, they were assuming this was the work of a Chechen rebel group.
On May 12 a woman was part of a group that drove a truck packed with explosives into a government complex in Znamenskoye in northern Chechnya, killing 59 people.
Two days later a woman blew herself up at a Muslim festival in another part of Chechnya in an attempt on the life of Moscow's top official, killing at least 16 people. DOORS CLOSED
A justice official said the woman suicide bomber had apparently intended to board the bus carrying air force pilots and civilian workers from Mozdok to an air base six kms away.
"The bus stopped to pick up some people going to work. The 'martyr-woman' approached when the doors had already closed," said Sergei Fridinsky, deputy general prosecutor.
"Her original intention had been to get into the bus and, since she could not open the doors, she blew herself up along side it," he told ORT television.
Chechen separatist warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for the two suicide attacks last month and threatened "a whirlwind" of violence in the future.
Chechnya's fugitive separatist president, Aslan Maskhadov said this month that his guerrillas would mount a summer campaign against Russian troops.
Last March the Kremlin, as part of its blueprint to solve the conflict, staged a constitutional referendum that anchored the territory in Russia and has set dates for parliamentary and presidential elections there in the future.
As part of the plan the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, was to take a final vote on Friday to bring a partial amnesty into force.
Chechen rebels and human rights groups have ridiculed the limitations of the amnesty offer, saying it excludes hard-core fighters while benefiting many Russian servicemen suspected of abuses in the region
