Suicide bomber kills 17 in Russia

A SUICIDE car bomb exploded in a market in southern Russia yesterday, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 130.

The bomb was detonated at the main entrance to the Vladikavkaz market in one of the North Caucasus's worst atrocities in years, officials said.

Ninety-eight of the 133 people wounded in the explosion were treated in hospital. Many remained in a critical condition last night, emergencies minister Alexander Pogorely said.

Television images showed a shrapnel-littered square in front of the market, with bloodstains on the pavement and rows of cars damaged by the blast.

Russia's North Caucasus has been gripped by violence stemming from two separatist wars in Chechnya and fuelled by endemic poverty, rampant official corruption and police abuses in an area with a large Muslim population.

Vladikavkaz, a major city, is the capital of the Russian republic of North Ossetia.

Although North Ossetia is less plagued by violence than other republics in the region such as Chechnya and Dagestan, it has experienced ethnic tensions and frequent attacks.

The Vladikavkaz market area has been the target of several bomb attacks over the past dozen years in which scores have died.

It was bombed in 1999; an attack in which 55 people died. Another bombing in 2001 killed six, and, in 2004, 11 people died when a minibus carrying a bomb exploded nearby.