#5 - JRL 7275
Suicide Attack Rescue in Russia Ends
August 3, 2003
By SERGEI VENYAVSKY
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) - Rescuers on Sunday called off their search for survivors of a suicide attack, after pulling the body of a surgical nurse and four others from the rubble of a military hospital near Chechnya as the death toll rose to 50.
The nurse and at least four others were initially believed trapped alive under the rubble and the recovery of their bodies dashed all hope of finding any survivors, emergency officials said.
The operation switched to a clean-up effort at the site of the four-story brick hospital, which collapsed like a house of cards when an unidentified driver rammed it with a truck full of explosives Friday night.
Chechen rebels were suspected of being behind the attack at the hospital in the North Ossetia region city of Mozdok, since it bore similarities to other blasts and targeted a facility treating Russian soldiers injured fighting in the separatist republic, authorities said.
Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, one of the republic's most powerful warlords, was thought to have been the organizer, according to the Interfax news agency, which cited law enforcement sources. Basayev has long been sought by Russian authorities, but remains at large.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Lt. Col. Yuri Miroshnichenko, spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry in southern Russia, said 50 people were confirmed killed and 64 remained hospitalized.
On Sunday, the Emergency Situations Ministry said that the dead included at least 22 military personnel. Earlier figures also noted that at least 12 local residents and eight hospital workers were among the dead.
Weeping mothers gathered outside a hospital in the region, waiting for information about their children. No official list of the injured was posted; instead relatives were urged to call telephone hot lines for information. Meanwhile, authorities began the process of handing out compensation to victims and their relatives.
Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed Saturday that terrorists acts will not stop what he called efforts aimed at fostering peace in Chechnya, where Russian forces have battled separatists in two wars during the last decade.
In a condolence telegram, Putin called the bombing ``yet another confirmation of the inhumanity and cruelty of the bandits who are trying to destabilize the situation in the Northern Caucasus'' - the region that includes Chechnya. A series of suicide bombings blamed on Chechen rebels - including last month's double suicide bombing at a rock festival in Moscow - have killed about 150 people since May.
Russian forces already control most of Chechnya, but they still suffer daily guerrilla attacks and the troops' tactics, which sometimes fail to distinguish between civilians and fighters, have alienated huge chunks of the Chechen population and drawn criticism from human rights groups.
Putin has refused to negotiate with rebels and has instead tried to sideline them. He endorsed a March constitutional referendum, which asked Chechens to approve their republic's status as part of Russia. The referendum overwhelmingly passed, according to official ballot results, and now will be followed by a regional presidential election scheduled for Oct. 5.
But Friday's attack was the latest blow to Russian authorities who have been at pains to show that stability is returning to Chechnya. Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said the disaster was compounded by military commanders' negligence in not enforcing security rules.
The attack prompted an order for round-the-clock patrols at hospitals, oil and energy facilities and major buildings across Chechnya, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. In North Ossetia's regional capital Vladikavkaz, all markets were closed Sunday.
Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya following a 1994-1996 war that left separatists in charge. They returned in 1999 - with Putin, then prime minister, gaining popularity for his tough stance against the rebels - after a series of 1999 apartment-building bombings, which killed 300 people. Ivanov said Saturday that explosives used in the latest attack resembled those used in the apartment house bombings.
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