Explosions freight train derailed in Russia”s volatile province

The blasts are the latest attack in a week plagued by violence, in which at least 55 people have died.

An explosion equivalent to five kilograms of TNT exploded Sunday morning , near the town of Izberbash, derailing a locomotive and eight cars, said Highway Patrol spokesman, Akhmed Magomayev.

Another blast, less strong, occurred in the vicinity shortly after the first in order to kill the rescuers, the official said.

explosions “followed the model of previous terrorist attacks against the authority symbols such as the bombing of a train high speed in November that left 26 dead near St. Petersburg, Magomayev said.

Last week, two female suicide bombers killed 40 subway users in Moscow. The Emergencies Ministry on Sunday increased the total balance of wounded to 121.

The suicide bo1000mbers of 17 and 28, were identified as widows of militants killed by Russian security forces last year.

A Chechen militant leader blamed the attack on the underground system and said it was in retaliation for the killing on 11 February local garlic pickers.

Dagestan is the epicenter of the violence in the Russian North Caucasus, which has a Muslim majority, after two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya.

In Kostek, an impoverished village in Dagestan, a relative of Dzhanet Abdurakhmanov, the attacker who committed suicide 17 years in the Moscow metro, said the repudiated just went with a militiaman.

“I turned our backs when she married him two years ago, “said a cousin of 20 years of anonymity.

The second bomber was called Maryam Sharilova, a teacher of 28 years Dagestan, which was recognized by his father, according to the publication Novaya Gazeta.

“My wife and I recognized immediately to our daughter Maryam,” said Rasul Magomedov, who said that a friend sent a photograph of the girl who has been disseminated on the Internet.

“The last time my wife and I saw our daughter, she wore the same red scarf in the picture,” said .

Magomedov said that his daughter disappeared the day before the bombings of March 29 that rocked Moscow, but said he was unaware how his daughter came to Moscow from the town of Balakhani, in the south of the country.

Magomedov told Novaya Gazeta that security forces had told him recently that his daughter was the wife of an Islamic militant. However, it said that when asked, responded that her daughter would never marry someone without their consent.

“(Maryam) was very religious, never expressed extremist views,” said Magomedov. Maryam was a school teacher, like her parents, and lived with them.

___

correspondent Mansur Mirovalev The Associated Press contributed to this report from Moscow.