Chechen warlord Doku Umarov claims Moscow airport bomb

8 February 2011, BBC

One of Russia's most wanted men, Chechen warlord Doku Umarov, has said he ordered the deadly bomb attack last month on a Moscow airport.

The suicide attack on the arrivals area of Domodedovo international airport on 24 January left 36 people dead and 180 injured.

In a video posted online, Mr Umarov said the attack was a response to "Russian crimes in the Caucasus".

Similar suicide attacks would continue, he added, speaking in Russian.

Mr Umarov is leader of the "Caucasus Emirate", an Islamist militant group spanning the North Caucasus, and is one of the few prominent Chechen rebels still active, having served as security minister in the Chechen separatist government from 1996-99.

He has also claimed the March 2010 suicide bombings on the Moscow Metro in which 39 people died, and is said to have ordered the November 2009 bombing of a train from Moscow to St Petersburg that left 26 dead.

'On my orders'

The video which appeared on the Kavkaz Tsentr website is dated 24 January, the day of the attack.

Many who survived the blast were badly injured

Appearing alone, dressed in combat fatigues, Mr Umarov speaks to the camera: "This special operation was carried out on my orders and, God willing, special operations like it will continue to be carried out."

He goes on to argue that Muslims are under attack all over the world, talking at length about the situation in Sudan, and condemns "Zionist and Christian regimes led by Israel and America".

Mr Umarov says that he and his fighters "are waging jihad in the Caucasus today to establish the word of Allah", and there are "hundreds more brothers" ready to sacrifice themselves to that end, in the fight with Russia's "racist regime".

Promising "regular, deeper and more aggressive operations", he says he wishes that so much blood did not have to be spilt for Russia to "leave the Caucasus".

Russian investigators say the suicide bomber who struck at Domodedovo Airport was a 20-year-old man from the North Caucasus.

At least seven foreigners were killed in the bombing at the airport - the busiest serving the Russian capital. The arrivals hall was full of people as several international flights had just landed.

Those killed included one person each from Britain, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. At least 16 Russians were also among the dead.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sacked several officials - said to include a regional transport chief and a Moscow police deputy head - after the bombing, blaming them for poor security.