Suicide Blast In Russia Kills 34

A blast hit Russia’s Domodedovo Airport yesterday at 4.32pm local time. The blast ripped through Russia’s showcase airport killing 34 people and wounding a further 168.

A rebel leader, Doku Umarov, took responsibility for that attack, posting a video in which he warned Russians that “the war will come to your streets, and you will feel it in your own lives and on your own skin.’’

The blast hit Domodedovo Airport, a showcase for modern Russia, just as president Dimitri Medvedev prepared to woo foreign investors at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Medvedev promptly postponed his departure to manage the aftermath of the attack.

The airport, southeast of the capital, is Russia’s largest airline hub, with more than 20 million passengers passing through last year. Domodedovo was involved in a terror attack in August 2004, when two Chechen suicide bombers boarded separate planes there, killing themselves and 88 others in midair.

The bomber apparently entered the international arrivals terminal from outside, a witness said, advancing to the blue tape where taxi drivers and relatives wait to greet arriving passengers. The area is open to the general public, said Yelena Galanova, an airport spokesman, according to the Interfax news service.

Two British travelers were among the dead, and French and Italian citizens were among the wounded, according to the Health and Social Development Ministry.

Moscow’s recurrent terror attacks have nearly always been traced to militants in the North Caucasus. The most recent came in March, when two women from Dagestan strapped on explosive belts and detonated themselves on the city’s subway, killing more than 40 people.