Female Suicide Bomber Kills Six on Russian Bus; Is Worst Attack Outside Caucasus Area in 3 Years

A female suicide bomber attacked a bus in southern Russia today (October 21, 2013), killing at least six people in the deadliest such blast outside the volatile North Caucasus region in nearly three years, according to the Reuters website.

The bombing in Volgograd was likely to raise fears of further attacks by Islamist militants, as Russia prepares to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in February in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, not far from the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region.

Investigators blamed a 30-year-old woman from Dagestan -- the North Caucasus province at the center of an insurgency -- for the bus attack which wounded 28 people, of whom eight were in critical condition, the federal Investigative Committee said.

Authorities named the suspect as Naida Asiyalova, a Muslim. "This woman, in a hijab, got on the bus at one of the stops and the explosion occurred almost immediately afterwards," Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.