Dagestan vice premier survives blast

al Jazeera, 16 February 2005

Three people have been killed and five wounded in a car bomb attack targeting two senior leaders in the government of the southern Russian republic of Dagestan, local officials said.

Dagestan Deputy Prime Minister Amutshi Amutinov and Security Council Secretary Akhmednabi Magdigadyev were unhurt by the blast in the northern city of Kizlyar on Wednesday, according to a spokesperson for Dagestan Interior Minister Dmitri Nikiforov.

The booby-trapped car, parked in front of the Kizlyar administrative district, exploded as a Mercedes carrying the two government ministers passed by.

“Following the explosion, eight people were wounded, three of whom died,” Nikiforov said.

Fourth attempt

According to ITAR-TASS news agency, the attack was the fourth assassination attempt on the deputy prime minister.

Dagestan Deputy Interior Minister Magomed Omarov and two of his bodyguards were killed on 2 February when their car was sprayed with bullets in the capital Makhachkala.

Dagestan is an ethnically mixed republic between war-torn Chechnya to the west and the Caspian Sea to the east.

Since 1999 it has been the scene of numerous attacks attributed to separatist groups infiltrating from breakaway Chechnya.