Security concerns are heightened after six men were found, some in cars rigged with explosives, in southern Russia ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. (Maxim Shemetov/Reuters)
Russia has put security forces on combat alert in the southern Stavropol region after the discovery of five bodies with gunshot wounds and an explosive device, a regional security spokesman said.
Russia has already tightened security before next month's Winter Olympics in Sochi, on which President Vladimir Putin has staked a lot of political and personal prestige, and is on high alert after suicide bombers killed at least 34 people in separate attacks in the southern city of Volgograd last month.
The five corpses were discovered on Wednesday in four cars in two separate districts outside the regional capital Stavropol, a gateway to the North Caucasus, where Russia faces an insurgency by Islamist militants who have threatened to try to prevent the Olympics going ahead.
Three men whose bodies were in three of the cars have been identified: Two were taxi drivers and the third assembled furniture for a private businessman, Russian state news agencies reported, citing law enforcement agencies. Their names have not been released. The men were said to be local residents and drove inexpensive Soviet-model Lada cars.
An unidentified explosive device was also found near one of the vehicles, said a spokesman for Russia's Federal Security Service in Stavropol.
NTV television reported from the scene that security had been heightened on the nearby border with Kabardino-Balkaria, one of several predominantly Muslim republics in Russia's Caucasus.
Putin said after the Volgograd attacks that he would annihilate all "terrorists" in Russia.
The Winter Olympics open in Sochi on Feb. 7. The Black Sea resort is on the western edge of the Caucasus mountains where the insurgents want to carve out an Islamic state.
The head of Russia's Olympic Committee has said no more can be done to safeguard the Games because every measure possible is already in place.
Russian forces went on combat alert in Sochi on Tuesday and about 37,000 personnel are now in place to provide security at the Games, Russian officials say.
0 komentar:
Posting Komentar