Counter-terrorism troops have shot and killed a man believed to the husband of the Volgograd suicide bomber after a standoff during which he claimed responsibility for organizing the bus attack but refused to surrender, news reports said.
Investigators reported locating a man believed to be Dmitry Sokolov, the husband of suicide bomber Naida Asiyalova, near Makhachkala, the capital of the North Caucasus region of Dagestan. He was reportedly hiding in a private house along with four suspected accomplices, the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said, Gazeta.ru reported.
Troops pulled into the area late Friday night, surrounding the building and attempting to negotiate with the people inside, one of whom identified himself as Sokolov and claimed he had made the bomb used in the Volgograd bus attack.
Sokolov, a 21-year-old man from the Moscow region who adopted the beliefs of radical Islam, was a terrorist explosives expert and investigators had suspected him of making the bomb that killed six people and wounded more than 30 others in last month's attack.
Officials put Sokolov's mother on the phone from her home in the Moscow region to talk to the man, a spokesman for the counter-terrorism committee said. Troops also allowed the father of building owner Rinat Mamayev to enter the house and talk with the suspects, human rights activist Gulnara Rustamova said, Kavazsky Uzel reported.
Mamayev's wife, Maryam, and their 18-month daughter were also in the building during an initial round of fire and a gas attack. They were allowed to leave the building before troops opened fire and killed the five men.
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