A suicide bomber set off a power blast in the Ingushetia region of Southern Russia killing a high level police official along with two of his bodyguards and four civilians.
Ingushetia's Deputy Interior Minister, Dzhabrail Kostoyev was riding to work in an armored car on a main road on the outskirts of the region's main city, Nazran. The bomber blocked the road using a sedan packed with explosives.
According to a spokesman from the Ingush Interior Ministry, four civilians who were passing by in other cars were also killed by the blast. The suicide bomber was reportedly inside the car that exploded.
Nazir Yevloyev, a spokesman for the local interior ministry described the scene, telling Reuters, 'The jeep was thrown around 20 meters from the epicenter of the explosion and, sadly, a Zhiguli (car) coming the other way ended up under the jeep and four people died.'
Ingushetia is adjacent to Chechnya and has been plagued by attacks as a result. In June 2004, 92 people died when militants made an attack targeting police.
This was not the first attempt on Kostoyev's life. He was wounded this past August when a radio-controlled land mine was detonated near his car. In February 2005, a mortar shell hit his office although Kostoyev was not in it at the time.
An Islamist Web site published a quote from a local rebel commander who warned that attacks such as this will increase.
