46 Killed in Suicide Assault on Government Offices in Chechnya

A double suicide bomb attack on the headquarters of the pro-Kremlin government in Chechnya’s capital killed at least 46 people Friday and cast new doubt on Russia’s claims that life in the separatist republic is returning to normal.

The bombing, which came on the heels of a spectacular hostage-taking by Chechen rebels at a Moscow theater in October, undermined Russian President Vladimir V. Putin’s assertion that Moscow has crushed resistance in the republic. Putin has announced that there will be a referendum in Chechnya in March designed to set up elections for a new government and formally end the state of war there.

In Friday’s early afternoon attack in Grozny, kamikazes drove a truck and a military jeep loaded with explosives through three cordons around the government building and detonated the bombs. One left a crater 5 yards across and several yards deep.

About 200 people work in the four-story building, the symbol of Moscow’s rule in Chechnya. At least 76 people were injured, and others were buried in the rubble. Officials said the death toll could rise sharply.

Russian television showed bodies strewn across the square in front of the building. People stumbled about dazed, with bloodied faces, while rescuers, lacking stretchers, carried away the limp bodies of unconscious or dead victims.

Five people were pulled from the wreckage, and emergency teams were working Friday night with truck lights trained on the scene, but officials were pessimistic about pulling more people out alive.

Shamsail Saraliyev, press secretary to the leader of the pro-Moscow administration, was in the building when it was rocked by the blast. He told the television station TVS: “It all happened very quickly. There was zero visibility. Suddenly, everything started to tumble down. And immediately, moans and screams filled the air.”

He quoted Akhmad Kadyrov, the leader of the administration, as blaming rebel commander and former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov for the attack. Kadyrov was reportedly in Moscow at the time of the blast.

“This act of terror was carried out in order to disrupt the stability in the republic which is preparing to hold a referendum and elections,” Saraliyev said.

A spokesman for Maskhadov, Ahmed Zakayev, denied that the leader was responsible for what he called “a terrorist act” and a tragedy for the Chechen people.

“On the other hand, others will assess what happened today in the context of Chechnya’s everyday life as a successful act of retribution by the Chechens,” Zakayev said on the Chechenpress Web site, the main outlet for the separatists. “Needless to say, many on the Chechen side viewed this building as a strategic target housing a bunch of the most zealous promoters of the anti-Chechen terrorist war.

“The Chechen leadership expresses its profound condolences to the relatives of the latest victims of the Russian-

Chechen conflict. Denouncing any terrorist acts, the Chechen leadership insists that the Russian-Chechen conflict cannot be settled by force,” he said, calling for international intervention to pressure Russia to negotiate with the rebels.

Russian officials are trying to extradite Zakayev from Britain for alleged terrorist acts, having recently failed to persuade Danish authorities to hand him over.

Suicide attacks in Chechnya are not common but have been used before. The rebels who attacked the Moscow theater had explosives strapped to their bodies and threatened to blow themselves and the theater up.

In 2000, there were several suicide attacks in Chechnya, including an attack against a military barracks in the town of Argun, which killed more than 25 Russian servicemen.

October’s attack on the Moscow theater hardened Russian attitudes toward Chechnya, with 64% having favored tougher military action against the rebels in a November survey conducted by the polling firm Romir.

But Putin’s hard-line military approach, criticized by international human rights groups, has neither delivered stability and peace in Chechnya nor brought an end to terrorist attacks in Moscow and elsewhere.

The theater attack shocked Muscovites and raised questions about Putin’s Chechen policy, but those were dispelled by the storming of the theater by special forces. It was widely seen as a success by Russians, even though the sleeping gas used in the operation killed all but two of the 129 people who died.

On Friday, no one claimed responsibility for the Grozny attack, but Chechen rebels rarely make such claims. Some Russian officials blamed another Chechen commander, Shamil Basayev, for the bombing.

Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for Russia’s regional military headquarters, told the NTV television station by phone that the only possible conclusion was that Basayev and Abu Walid, an Arab commander in Chechnya, were responsible.

“According to our intelligence, the terrorist act was possible because money is still being channeled to Chechnya from a number of Arab countries,” he said, without elaborating. “This is what has enabled the rebels to assemble the explosive devices and enlist the suicide drivers.”

Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, appointed by Putin as Russia’s human rights commissioner for Chechnya, told NTV that those responsible were trying to show that the referendum and elections are impossible, in a bid to force negotiations with the rebel side.

“These barbarians commit their villainous crimes in agony,” he declared, adding that the separatists are waging war on their own people.

Many Russian officials, including the chairman of the Central Election Commission, Alexander Veshnyakov, insisted that the referendum should go ahead despite the instability.

“The purpose of all these acts of terror is to intimidate the population and to disrupt the process of political settlement of the Chechen republic’s problems by peaceful means. And this scenario [canceling the referendum] plays into the hands of the terrorists,” he warned.

But Vladimir Kulakov, vice chairman of the security and defense committee in the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, told TVS that it is premature to talk about elections in Chechnya.

“We are making steps toward developing a civic society that would live according to civilian rules. Unfortunately, terrorists do not want the same thing,” he said.

Akhmar Zavgayev, a Chechen representative in the Federation Council, told NTV that the Chechen administration will press on with the referendum regardless of the blast.

“Today’s incident bears witness to what kind of people Maskhadov and his closest entourage are. We will hold the referendum anyway,” said Zavgayev, vowing to make life tougher for the rebels so that the “ground will be burning beneath their feet.”

State Department officials condemned the attack, and Secretary of State Colin L. Powell called Russian Foreign Minister Igor S. Ivanov to express condolences.