MOSCOW, November 4 (RIA Novosti) – Two separate bomb blasts in Russian North Caucasus republics left two people injured on Sunday evening, regional authorities said.
One person was injured when a roadside bomb exploded in Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, the republic’s emergencies ministry said.
The improvised explosive device was planted on the 430th km of the Kavkaz Federal Highway, connecting the Krasnodar Territory in southern Russia and the North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan.
The bomb went off when a car with servicemen was driving by.
“One of them was injured. He is receiving medical treatment at the moment,” the ministry said in a statement.
In a separate incident, a police officer was injured in a blast in Buinaksk, a city in the North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan.
“An improvised explosive device went off at 21:15 Moscow time [17:15 GMT]… It was planted under a Lada car owned by an officer of the city’s police department,” the interior ministry of Dagestan said in a statement.
The officer was hospitalized in critical condition. The city’s investigation department said the men lost both legs in the explosion.
Over a decade after the end of a war against Islamist separatists in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, Russian security forces continue to fight militants across the volatile region.
The Islamist insurgency, once confined largely to Chechnya, has spread in recent years across the North Caucasus. Attacks on security forces, police and civilians are reported regularly in the neighboring republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria.