After a Brief Hiatus, Terrorism Returns to Moscow

The head of the Islamic Chechen secessionists, Dokka Umarov, hasn’t yet claimed responsibility for the two Moscow bombings today but that’s not stopping everyone from fingering his organization. Some recent history: “The last time the black widows struck outside their volatile North Caucasus homeland was in 2004. That was a bloody year for Russia. Black widows blew up two passenger planes that took off from Moscow airport, bombed the Moscow metro twice, and took part in the infamous siege of Beslan’s School Number One. Hundreds of innocent civilians, including children, lost their lives in the carnage. Last year, after a long pause, they began to strike again in the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region far from Moscow that includes Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan. Their cause is the creation of an Islamist caliphate along Russia’s southern spur.”