Russian Suicide Bus Bombing Sparks Terror Fears at Sochi Olympics

Members of Russia’s emergency services work near a damaged bus after a bomb blast in Volgograd, October 21, 2013. – Russian Emergencies Ministry / Reuters

Simon Shuster reports:  Naida Asiyalova, the suicide bomber who blew herself up on Monday on a crowded bus in the Russian city of Volgograd, killing six people and wounding dozens more, was born in the town of Buynaksk, a huddle of mosques and squat apartment blocks in the foothills of the Russian Caucasus. For at least a year, the town has been under a so-called KTO regime, the Russian acronym for counter-terrorism operation, which allows security forces to conduct random searches, impose curfews and detain any foreigners who do not carry a special visitor’s permit, as happened to me this spring. At the checkpoint leading into town, the troops who stopped me could not say exactly how long the counter-terrorism operation had been going on. “A long time,” one of them said with a sigh. “Probably a couple of years. You should have known about it.” And when would it be over? “Not soon. Not with the Olympics coming up.” Read the rest of this entry »