Russians identify airport bomber

RUSSIAN investigators have said a suicide bomber who killed 35 people and wounded 180 at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport was a 20-year-old man from the volatile southern Caucasus region.

The federal Investigative Committee made the announcement in a website statement yesterday.

It is the first official indication since Monday's blast at the international arrivals hall that authorities have made progress in their probe of the attack.

It appears to support popular suspicion that Islamist rebels from the south could be behind the bombing.

Chechen rebels have claimed responsibility for a number of deadly attacks over the years, including ones against the Moscow subway and at the same airport. A Scottish man - Gordon Cousland, 39 - was killed in the attack.

Federal investigators said foreigners were deliberately targeted, marking an ominous new tactic in Russia's losing battle with extremism.

Islamist rebels from the Caucasus, a group of mountainous Russian provinces that are beset with an entrenched separatist insurgency, have been widely suspected in the attack at Domodedovo Airport.

The investigators' statement confirmed a suicide blast involving a bomb containing shrapnel. While authorities said they know the identity of the perpetrator, they suggested they still do not know who masterminded the attacks.

"Despite the fact that we know the name of the terrorist, we won't name him today ... since investigative searches are ongoing to identify and detain the organisers and accomplices of the terrorist act," the statement said.

The victims included one person each from Britain, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Tajikistan. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. There were 16 Russians among the dead and the remaining 12 have not been identified.