The attack has sparked “fears of a new war with Islamist militants.” Actually, the attacks are new, but it’s the same old jihad, as the aim of jihad is the establishment of Muslim rule and Sharia law. That hasn’t changed. “President of Ingushetia gravely injured in suicide car bombing,” from the Times, June 23:
An attempt to blow up the President of Ingushetia yesterday increased fears of a new war with Islamist militants in Russia’s turbulent North Caucasus. Yunus-bek Yevkurov narrowly escaped assassination when a suicide car bomber rammed his convoy and detonated explosives equivalent to 70kg (154lb) of TNT, officials from the Ingush Investigative Committee said.
The Kremlin-appointed leader of the Muslim republic, which borders Chechnya, was rushed to hospital in the regional capital Nazran with serious injuries to his head and body. He underwent surgery but doctors later decided to fly him to Moscow, describing his condition as grave.
The President’s brother and head of security were wounded and his driver and a bodyguard were killed. Witnesses said that his armoured Mercedes was wrecked in the blast.
President Medvedev blamed militants for the attack and ordered security chiefs to make a “direct and harsh” response. Police imposed strict controls on movement in Nazran. Mr Medvedev said: “The President has done much recently to bring order and ensure peace in the republic. The bandits do not like these efforts.”
Mr Yevkurov, 45, only became President last October after Mr Medvedev dismissed his hated predecessor, Murat Zyazikov, who was accused of terrorising the population to break a growing insurgency. Mr Zyazikov, an ex-KGB officer, was the target of an assassination attempt in 2004.
Mr Yevkurov, who is Ingush, is a highly decorated former paratrooper who led Russian troops to seize control of Pristina airport in Kosovo ahead of Nato forces in the 1999 campaign in Yugoslavia. He recently declared that he would offer rebels an amnesty but eliminate those who refused to surrender.
The attempt to kill him is the most direct attack so far on Kremlin rule in Ingushetia, where violence has grown as Islamist militants have been pushed out of neighbouring Chechnya. Mr Medvedev declared an end to a decade-long “counter-terror operation” in Chechnya in April….