Russia's Ingush Republic President Wounded in Bombing
By VOA News
22 June 2009
The president of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia has been seriously wounded in what officials say was a suicide bomb attack on his convoy.
Authorities say Ingush President Yunus Bek Yevkurov was traveling to work Monday morning near the republic's largest city, Nazran, when the roadside bomb exploded. He survived but at least one other person was killed and several others wounded.
Officials say Yevkurov was hospitalized in serious condition but that his life is not in immediate danger. Russia's Itar-Tass news agency says he underwent successful surgery and was to be airlifted to Moscow for further treatment.
In Moscow, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev condemned the attack as an act of terror. Mr. Medvedev appointed Yevkurov to the presidency late last year, after firing the region's former leader, Murat Zyazikov.
Yevkurov is the third senior Ingush official to be wounded or killed in a series of attacks in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, gunmen assassinated the deputy chief of Ingushetia's Supreme Court and the region's former deputy prime minister in separate incidents. A sniper also killed the interior minister of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan.
Ingushetia is a predominantly Muslim region neighboring Chechnya, where Russian troops have been fighting separatist forces for more than a decade.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
