2:00PM EST: A bomber strode into the international arrivals hall at Moscow’s busiest airport on Monday afternoon and set off an enormous explosion, witnesses and Russian officials said, leaving bodies strewn in a smoke-filled terminal while bystanders scrambled to get the wounded out on baggage carts.
Russian authorities said at least 34 people were killed and 168 injured in the attack. The Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said in televised remarks that the blast was an act of terrorism and ordered the police to track down the perpetrators.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said the attack was probably carried out by a male suicide bomber, and that authorities were trying to identify him.
In the moments after the blast, the smoke was so thick that it was difficult to count the dead, eyewitnesses said. Arriving passengers stepped into the hall to the sight of blood on the floor and bodies being loaded onto stretchers. Ambulances sped away crowded with three or four patients apiece, bleeding heavily from shrapnel wounds to their arms and legs.
The blast hit Domodedovo Airport, a facility that is a showcase for modern Russia, just as Mr. Medvedev prepared to woo foreign investors at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Mr. Medvedev promptly postponed his departure to manage the aftermath of the attack.
It is bound to further shake a country already on edge after a nationalist demonstration turned violent in mid-December, inflaming relations between ethnic Russians and migrants from the north Caucasus, a predominately Muslim region on Russia’s southern border.
Though there was no indication Monday evening of who was behind the blast, Moscow’s recurrent terror attacks have nearly always been traced to militants in the North Caucasus. The most recent came in March, when two women from Dagestan strapped on explosive belts and detonated themselves on the city’s subway, killing more than 40 people.
Doku Umarov, a rebel leader, took responsibility for that attack, posting a video in which he warned Russians that “the war will come to your streets, and you will feel it in your own lives and on your own skin.” Such attacks have typically strengthened the influence of Russian security forces and Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin by firmly establishing security as the country’s top priority.
Mr. Putin appeared on television on Monday night, ordering the health minister to provide aid to all the bombing victims, visiting clinics one by one, if necessary, he said.
The bomber apparently entered the international arrivals terminal from outside, a witness said, advancing to the blue tape where taxi drivers and relatives wait to greet arriving passengers and setting off the explosion at 4:32 p.m. local time. The area is open to the general public, said Yelena Galanova, an airport spokesman, according to the Interfax news service.
Investigators were working on Monday evening to determine the power and type of explosive used in the attack. Nikolai Sintsov, a spokesman for the National Anti-Terrorist Committee, said there are shrapnel holes in the arrival hall, but no shrapnel has yet been retrieved.
The airport, southeast of the capital, is Russia’s largest airline hub, with more than 20 million passengers passing through last year. Domodedovo was the site of a previous terror attack in August of 2004, when two Chechen suicide bombers boarded separate planes there, killing themselves and 88 others in midair. The attack exposed holes in security, since the two bombers, both women, had been detained shortly before boarding, but were released by a police supervisor. The authorities have since worked to tighten security there.
10:00AM EST: Russian TV is reporting that the blast at a Moscow airport erupted at the baggage claim area, killing 31 people. The Health Ministry provided the media outlet with the death toll, it said.
The Russian government is confirming the death toll of 31 people and says 130 people were injured in the Moscow airport blast.
In a post on its website, the Russian Investigative Committee is blaming terrorists for the attack.
9:15AM EST: At least 10 people have been killed and several injured in an explosion at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, the Interfax News Agency reports.
The agency quotes the Russian Investigative Committee and an unidentified medical source as saying 20 people have been injured in the explosion at Russia’s busiest airport.
The BBC has carried a similar report, quoting Interfax, and reports that the Russian media says the blast in the airport luggage was from a suicide bomber.
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13 Responses
Medvedev, the Russian premier just returned from a visit with the Palestinian Authority whom he encouraged to remain steadfast and hinted at having it be recognized by Russia. And now he got the explosion with tens of dead and wounded.
Brasil recognized the Palestinian state. The Brazilians just got a massive mudslide that killed more than 800 people and other 400 are missing.
There is a pattern here for sure. It’s called midah kenegged midah.
Which terrorists are attacking Russia?
And what were the sabaro bombing and countless other tragedies that klall yisroel has faced!!! Who are you to play gd and say who deserved what. I bet there were some yidden who died. What about shiluchim who work to mekarev those in Russia. This is a horrible tragedy, and can be nothing more to our limited scope as basar vdam.
CNN SAYS 35 KILLED, 152 WOUNDED
To # 3 Exactly my thoughts.
This may well be a game changer.
Unlike the U.S., Russia doesn’t fool around.
you cant continue to look at politics and news without knowing “haplogroup” borders. none of you know what’s going on or what your talking about. exposing this truth greatly benefits the jewish people and all oppressed peoples. you cant even see whats going on without always comparing the haplogroup maps to international issues. they certaintly do this, we’re the only ones that arent.
Did anyone take responsibility 4 the attack?????
#3 i second the motion of #1
Well said, no. 1. As nos. 3 and 5 aptly point out, we can’t always see divine justice unfolding. But in cases like this one, where there is certainly poetic justice, we can and should use it to reinforce in ourselves the recognition that Hashem is talking to us through the historical events that we do like, and through those that we wouldn’t have preferred.
Whether or not any of the victims in this incident happened to be Jews, the inescapable reality is that the very country arming terror sponsor Iran to vaporize the Jewish state was just targeted in a terrorist attack. Others are free to turn a blind eye to that message. Like you, I’m not willing to.
Im sorry to say but there is some massive Ignorance flying around here. first, its quite convenient to mention brazil and the tragedies occurring there, but what about australia and the massive flooding there? do they also support the pa? second, i get the feelin that many here assume these terrorists were palestinians or something of that sort. perhaps you should be aware that terrorism is not unique to the middle east, and that russia has had its own problems with terrorists for decades. they oppress peopl within their borders as well as their neighbors. this has nothing to with the palestinians.
I never said anything about turning a blind eye to historical events or the “poetic justice” of the matter. What I am saying is that human lives were lost, Jewish or not, the result of meda kineged mida or not. As someone who lost a family member on 9/11 it really doesn’t make the loss any better by saying “oh there was a reason.” I am sure others who have lost a family member to terror can say the same. Am I certain that Hashem has a reason, yes. But as I stated as basar vdom, we should not presume to know what it is. The tragedy of the individual people is all that the attack was. If you want to attributive some Shakespearean attitudes to that, be my guest.
Chazal teach us that everything that happens, it is because of us and for our sake. Russia has historically supported the Arabs, Arafat included, in their quest to kill, rape, and rob us notwithstanding the fact that our cause appears to an unbiased person as a just cause. They are also the main suppliers of equipment for Iran’s quest to acquire nuclear capability to destroy Eretz Israel. Now they are getting a taste of their own medicine.
To those who mention 9/11, tragedies in Australia, mines caving in in China killing the workers trapped inside, yes, they also take place because of us and for our sake. We are not megalomaniacs. It is for us to learn from these events.