In June 2000, the North Caucasian Chechen separatist-led Chechen insurgents added suicide bombing to their tactics in their struggle against Russia. Since then, there have been dozens of suicide attacks within and outside the republic of Chechnya, resulting in thousands of casualties among Russian security personnel and civilians. The profiles of the suicide bombers have varied, as have the circumstances surrounding the bombings.
Although the most publicized Chechen suicide attacks have taken place in Moscow, most attacks have occurred in Chechnya, while several additional attacks have taken place in the extended North Caucasus region and particularly the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia. The majority of suicide bombings, targeting military installations and government compounds in and around Chechnya and also top government officials, have been directed against those whom the separatists consider to be combatants.
Summary As of 2014, most of the bombers appear to be ethnic Chechens, but there have also been multiple examples of ethnic Ingush, Dagestani, or Ossetian bombers as well. Of the non-Chechen bombers, most of the attacks have been carried out by Ingush bombers, an ethnic group closely related to the Chechens (the Ingush bear a separate set of grudges against Russia, including Russian support of the Ossetian side of the East Prigorodny Conflict). None of the attacks so far have occurred in Kabardino-Balkaria or with any known involvement of local rebel groups there.
There is no evidence of any foreign involvement in either the planning or execution of Chechen attacks aside from the inspiration from the tactics employed in the Arab–Israeli conflict. Female suicide bombers, referred to as shahidka by Chechens (meaning a female martyr) or "Black Widows" by Russians (as they have often had a husband [and/or children] killed by the Russian army or the Kadyrovtsy), comprise a clear majority of Chechen suicide attackers. This trend stands in direct contrast to ongoing suicide bomb campaigns in Israel and Iraq, where women constitute only a small minority of suicide bombers.Women bombers break new ground, BBC News, 15 November 2005
What is also somewhat unusual about Chechen bombing is that although the tactics used are largely similar to those used by Islamic militants, religion is usually not the cited motivation, despite Russian claims. For example, female bomber Khava Barayeva stated that she attacked in the name of Chechen independence, and urged more Chechens to do the same for their national honor.
Family members of identified bombers often suffer severe reprisals (beatings, arson attacks, kidnappings, torture and murder) at the hands of masked gunmen presumed to be government agents and members of pro-Kremlin militias, although the same may be said about the relatives of all Chechen rebels.
Through the first five years of the Chechen-Russian conflict (including the First Chechen War and most of the first year of the Second Chechen War), there were no planned suicide bombings related to Chechnya. The highest concentrations of suicide attacks to date occurred in the following time periods: The summer of 2000, when suicide bombers used cars and trucks filled with explosives to attack military and police targets in Chechnya 2003–2004, when a much-publicized wave of explosive belt terrorist attacks against Russian civilians swept out of Chechnya and into Moscow The summer of 2009. The 2009 terrorists appear to have been mostly male, targeting police and regional top officials in and near Chechnya.
Radical rebel commander Shamil Basayev and his extremist gang, Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs, claimed responsibility for a number of them.
In late 2004, following the Beslan disaster, attacks (excluding those against the Kadyrov regime) ceased for four years due to major changes in tactics employed by the separatist movement. The reason for this was cited as a certain amount of shame over Beslan on the part of the Chechen separatists. A spokesman said in 2004 that "A bigger blow could not have been dealt on us. ... People around the world will think that Chechens are beasts and monsters if they could attack children."
The bombings resumed by 2008 and in April 2009. Caucasus Emirate leader Doku Umarov announced the reactivation of the Riyadus-Salikhin extremist gang, which had been disbanded in 2006 at the behest of Umarov's predecessor Sheikh Abdul Halim. Multiple attacks were then conducted during what Umarov called the "year of offensive". The Emirate's leadership has been compelled to revert to the tactic of istishhad by the influx of volunteers, which has coincided with a severe shortage of food and weapons.The tactic of istishhad, Prague Watchdog, October 5th 2009
Russian suicide bombing incidents
Attacks against Russian government targets
June 2000 Chechnya bombings June 6–11, 2000 – Chechnya experienced its first suicide bombings when two Chechen girls, 22-year-old Khava Barayeva and 16-year-old Luiza Magomadova, and Russian former prisoner of war and Islam convert Djabrail Sergeyev (Sergey Dimitriyev) attacked separate checkpoints manned by Russian paramilitary police in the Chechen capital Grozny and in the village of Alkhan-Yurt with two car bombs, killing at least four OMON troops (25 Russians were killed according to rebels).
July 2000 Chechnya bombings July 2–3, 2000 – Chechens launched five or six bomb attacks targeting various Russian military and police headquarters and barracks within 24 hours, killing at least 54 people and injuring more than 100, including civilians. The most deadly of the attacks killed 25 Russian MVD troops and injured 81 at the Interior Ministry base in the town of Argun (this bombing was also filmed from a safe distance). In the city of Gudermes, 11 people were killed at a police station. Other, less successful attacks in Grozny, Urus Martan and Novogroznensky resulted in the government losses of eight killed and three missing, according to official reports. Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for organization of the attacks, which according to Movladi Udugov, resulted in more than 600 federal casualties.
August 2000 Chechnya bombings A series of attacks in Urus-Martan, Khankala, Argun and elsewhere killed at least 30 people and injured 50.
November 2000 Urus-Martan bombing November 29, 2001 – A young Chechen woman, Aiza Gazuyeva (aged 18 or 20), blew up herself with a hand grenade, killing Russian General Gaidar Gadzhiyev, whom she blamed for the death of her detained husband. Two other soldiers were also killed and two were injured.
2002 Grozny bombing December 27, 2002 – Two Chechen bombers, Gelani Tumriyev and his 17-year-old half-Russian daughter, Alina Tumriyeva, dressed in Russian military uniforms and using official passes, drove a truck bomb into the heavily guarded main republican administration compound in Grozny, wrecking the four-story "government house". At least 83 people were killed and 210 injured, a number of them Chechen and federal government officials. Deputy Prime Minister Zina Batyzheva was seriously hurt and a deputy military commandant of Chechnya was also injured. The explosion had the force of one ton of TNT. Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for both the planning and execution of the attack, which was recorded by camera.
2003 Znamenskoye bombing On May 12, 2003, three bombers (a man and two women) drove a truck full of explosives into a government complex in Znamenskoye, northern Chechnya. The blast gutted the regional republican FSB headquarters responsible for coordinating the ongoing "counter-extremist operation" in all of Chechnya. At least 59 people were killed and about 200 injured in the filmed attack, including multiple civilians in the nearby marketplace.
2003 Ilikskhan-Yurt bombing May 14, 2003 – Pro-Russian Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov was targeted by a pair of female bombers (Shakhidat Baymuradova and Zulai Abdulazakova) at a religious festival in the village of Ilishkhan-Yurt. The pair were however stopped by his bodyguards. An explosive device detonated by Baymuradova, a 46-year-old veteran woman guerrilla, killed 16 people, including Abdulazakova, and injured 43 others.
June 2003 Mozdok bombing June 5, 2003 – An unidentified female bomber, apparently dressed as a medic, attacked a bus carrying Russian Air Force pilots and other personnel (including civilian workers) to the Mozdok airbase in North Ossetia, killing at least 17 of them and injuring 14. Mozdok Air Base has been used by the Russian federal forces for operations in Chechnya since 1994.
June 2003 Grozny bombing June 20, 2003 – A truck bomb attack on a cluster of Grozny government buildings, including headquarters of the OMON special police and the Justice Ministry, failed when the bomb exploded prematurely, killing up to eight and injuring some 36.Blast hits Chechen capital, BBC News, 20 June 20032 Killed in Grozny Suicide Truck Bombing, Voice of America, 20 Jun 2003
August 2003 Mozdok bombing August 1, 2003 – An unidentified bomber driving a KamAZ truck packed with one ton of explosives blew up a military hospital treating the military casualties from Chechnya in another attack at Mozdok, in North Ossetia, less than two months after the airbase bus blast in June. The massive explosion destroyed the hospital building completely, collapsing it and killing at least 50 and injuring 82, mostly wounded or sick soldiers and medical personnel.Toll rises to 50 in truck-bomb attack, The Age, August 4, 2003 Chechen rebels loyal to the Aslan Maskhadov government claimed they had nothing to do with the bombing. The commander of the Mozdok military hospital, Lt. Col. Artur Arakelian, was arrested on charges of criminal negligence and failure to carry out an order.
2003 Magas bombing September 15, 2003 – Two unidentified attackers detonated a truck bomb outside the republican FSB headquarters in Magas, the new capital of Ingushetia, killing three other people and injuring 29.Russia: Two Bombers Carried Out Ingushetia Attack, RFE/RL, 16 September 2003Bomb kills 2, wounds 29 in Russia, CNN, September 15, 2003 The building was only slightly damaged and the devastation was limited mostly to its parking lot.
2008 Vedeno bombing August 30, 2008 – A pair of suicide bombers in a car attacked perimeter of a base of Internal Troops at Vedeno, killing at least one paramilitary soldier and injuring 11 more.Bombs kill at least two Russian soldiers in Chechnya, Reuters, August 30, 2008
May 2009 Grozny bombing May 15, 2009 – An elderly man detonated a bomb after unsuccessfully trying to get into the Interior Ministry in Grozny, killing two policemen at the security gate and injuring at least five other people. A taxi driver who had dropped him there was gunned down by the police and then declared to be an accomplice of the attacker, despite the first reports claiming that he was a civilian killed in the blast. That was the first bombing in Grozny since 2003.
June 2009 Nazran bombing June 23, 2009 – Ingush President Yunus-bek Yevkurov was critically injured in a suicide car bomb attack on his motorcade that wrecked his armoured Mercedes car. His brother, who served as his head of security, was also injured, and his driver and a bodyguard were killed.President of Ingushetia gravely injured in car bombing, The Times, June 23, 2009 Police said they identified the bomber as an Ingush woman Pyatimat Mutaliyeva.