GROZNY,
May 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Seven Russians were
killed and 15 others injured in a fresh explosion in the turbulent
Chechen capital Grozny on Friday, May 30, the Russian television network
NVS reported.
The
blast came as Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomes world leaders in
Saint Petersburg for a series of summits at which Russia's dragging
aggression against Chechnya is not due to figure high on the agenda.
The
device exploded around 9:00am (0500 GMT) in the city's eastern
Oktyabrskaya district as a bus carrying mainly construction workers from
a Russian military base was passing by, a police source told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Chechen
interior ministry officials told Interfax the bus drove over a
remote-controlled landmine.
Grozny
Mayor Oleg Zhidkov called for more mobile patrols but said he opposed
any increased Russian troop presence.
"We
don't need more troops or tougher measures. Setting up barbed wire won't
work either," he was quoted as saying.
"What
we do need is more vigilance by security forces."
The
Chechen administration imposed a curfew on the town amid fears of fresh
attack.
The
republic's pro-Russian prime minister, Anatoly Popov, told journalists
that "everything possible will be done to find out who planned this
attack," Interfax said.
European
leaders have led criticism of the Chechen war, but were not expected to
raise the issue when they meet Putin at an E.U.-Russia summit on
Saturday, May 31.
Unbowed
Meanwhile,
in a rare account of a meeting of Chechen field commanders, Chechen
leader Shamil Basayev said his fighters were still determined to wrest
control of Chechnya from Russia.
"Our
spirits are unbowed. We are resolved in our faith that each passing day
brings closer our victory," he said on a video tape obtained by
Reuters, which said the time and location of the meeting were unknown.
Chechen
fighters have stepped up operations in recent weeks, carrying out two
bomb attacks within the space of three days earlier this month, killing
78 people.
Late
Thursday, three Russian conscripts doing their military service in
Chechnya were killed when an explosive device went off as their tank
convoy was driving in the southwestern village of Bas-Gordaly, near the
border with Dagestan, RIA Novosti said, quoting the regional military
general staff.
