Terror Attack Catalogue

Date: May 26th, 2010
Method: Bomb (200-250 grammes of TNT)
Location: Stavropol, Russia
Death Toll: 5-6
Injury Toll: 20-40
Perpetrators: Unconfirmed (accused Islamic Insurgents)

Earth Times reports:

The explosive device detonated under a canopy at the Culture and Sport Palace in the North Caucasus city, as people were making their way to a concert by a musical ensemble from conflict-torn Chechnya.The victims were spectators, officials were quoted as saying.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last year ordered that Stavropol Region be included in a new North Caucasus Federal District along with mainly-Muslim Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia in a bid to tackle growing violence.

Medvedev's new envoy to the district, former metals executive Alexander Khloponin, on Wednesday called an emergency meeting to discuss the bombing, RIA reported.

Stavropol city is 350 km (220 miles) northwest of Chechnya's local capital Grozny. It has largely escaped Islamist insurgent attacks, but the surrounding region has seen some of the deadliest attacks in the long-running conflict.

Chechen rebels seized hundreds of hostages in a hospital in the Stavropol Region town of Budyonnovsk in 1995 and more than 100 died during the rebel assault and a botched Russian raid.

In the last major attack, seven Russian policemen and 12 gunmen were killed when special forces stormed houses to fight rebels holed up in a village near the city in 2006.