Russian President Dmitry Medvedev yesterday called terror the most serious threat to Russia and vowed to “liquidate” the militants behind the Moscow airport bomb blast that killed 35 people.
Medvedev also instructed his government to probe whether those responsible for ensuring the country’s transportation security had properly performed their jobs.
He said clear breaches in security had allowed a suspected female suicide bomber linked to Russia’s Northern Caucasus to slaughter people at Domodedovo and he demanded answers from Domodedovo over how it let the bomber wander into arrivals and set off a charge just as passengers from several international flights were arriving.
Sources told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency that the attack bore all the hallmarks of militants from the overwhelmingly Muslim Caucasus region who have been behind a string of attacks in Moscow over the last years.
The bomber may have been a woman, the agency said, although initial reports had said it was a man in his 30s.
Russian investigators said on Monday they had found a head of “Arab appearance” that was initially presumed to have belonged to the suicide bomber.
No Taiwanese was injured in Monday’s bombing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
There are about 300 Taiwanese living in Russia, ministry spokesman James Chang (章計平) said, including 150 students, 50 businessmen and dozens of diplomatic and trade officials. Seventy-five of the students and 40 businessmen live in the Greater Moscow area, he said.
The ministry’s travel alert level for the Russian Federation remained yellow, the second lowest level in its four color system, Chang said, but the ministry was monitoring the latest situation and would raise the alert level if needed.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
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