A female suicide bomber blew herself up Sunday near a base of a security force commanded by a son of Chechnya’s Kremlin-appointed administration chief, wounding a woman who was nearby, officials said. The attack, which occurred southeast of the provincial capital of Grozny, appeared aimed at the administration chief Akhmad Kadyrov’s son, Ramzan, Chechnya’s Emergency Situations Minister Ruslan Avtayev said. He said one woman was lightly wounded in the attack. The attacker approached a building where Ramzan Kadyrov was reviewing members of the force, and guards thought she looked suspicious. “They asked her to halt, and at that moment the explosion rang out,” Samail Saraliyev, a spokesman for Akhmad Kadyrov, said on NTV television. Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack. The bomber was about 20 years old, the Interfax news agency reported, citing unidentified sources in the regional Interior Ministry. Authorities were searching for another woman after hearing reports that a second bomber had been planning an attack on the younger Kadyrov, according to Interfax. Female suicide bombers have carried out several attacks in Chechnya and Moscow in recent months. Ramzan Kadyrov is distrusted by many Chechens who are wary of the power of his armed group and fear it is unlikely to be held accountable for its actions. Akhmad Kadyrov spoke out against Russia during the first of its two wars against Chechen separatists in the past decade but later aligned himself with the Kremlin, which in 2000 appointed him to head the regional administration. He became its acting president in a March referendum in which voters approved a new constitution and plans for regional elections. Full Story
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