A suicide bomber wounded six police officers in the capital of the Russian republic of Chechnya on Wednesday, officials said.
The blast in Grozny struck a symbolic blow against Russia's claims that stability is returning to the Chechen capital, much of which was reduced to rubble in the two wars between separatist rebels and Russian troops over the past 15 years.
Russian news agencies cited witnesses as saying the bomber was a woman, but officials did not confirm this. Female suicide bombers, colloquially called "black widows," were a hallmark of the Chechen insurgency in the early part of the decade, blowing up two Russian passenger airliners and committing fatal blasts near Red Square and at a Moscow subway station.
Wednesday's attacker detonated a belt strapped with explosives when two police officers approached on foot, seriously injuring them and wounding four police in a nearby car, the Chechen regional president's office said. Earlier reports said two officers were killed, but the ministry later said the two initially believed killed were in intensive care.
Russia has poured vast amounts of money into reconstructing the capital, and central Grozny is the showpiece of the program. The explosion occurred on the main street of the downtown area, Putin Avenue, named after Vladimir Putin, who launched the second Chechen war in 1999.
Suicide bombings were rare in Chechnya in recent years, but at least six have occurred since late July, killing at least 12 people. There has been a general spike in violence throughout Russia's North Caucasus, including the suicide truck bombing of a police compound in Ingushetia and a suicide bombing that seriously wounded that republic's president.
Despite the rise in violence, Russian officials insist that Caucasus insurgents are being brought under control and some have suggested the rise in attacks reflects desperation from losing a battle.
"They know that they can't go anywhere, and so the commanders are giving young guys some kind of pills that stupefy them," Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov was quoted as saying in an interview published in the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
He denied that security in Chechnya was worsening, saying "there are explosions. But there are explosions in London, in America — explosions everywhere."
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