A suicide bombing at Domodedovo International Airport, one of the largest airports in Moscow, located an hour's drive south of the Russian capital, killing at least 29 dead Monday, January 24. Monday night, a certain confusion about the effect on balance, the Ministry of Health reports of 29 deaths, the emergency of 31, while the airport gives a figure of 35 dead.According to a representative of the department, twenty wounded were in serious condition. The Department of Emergency counting 152 injured, 58 hospitalized. The attack was not claimed, but there is no doubt that the explosion was a "terrorist act," said the spokesman of the Investigation Committee Vladimir Markin.
An investigation was opened and three people suspected of involvement in the attack are being sought, said a police source in the Russian agency Interfax. Amateur video on this tour a few minutes after the explosion, one can see the thick smoke that covered part of the airport and bodies strewn on the floor of the room where the bomb exploded: "The suicide bomber detonated while he was among the crowd waiting passengers, "said a police source quoted by RIA.
The bomb was a power equivalent to 5 kg of TNT and packed with metal fragments, the source said. According to police sources quoted by the agencies, the Russian special services were informed of an impending attack in a Moscow airport. But they have missed three suspects accused of the explosion, sources said.
The Interfax news agency, also citing a source within law enforcement, refers to the Chechen connection. Another police source quoted by Interfax had earlier indicated that the head of a suspected suicide bomber "of Arab" had been found at the scene of the attack. Moscow has in the past denounced the involvement of mercenaries from Arab countries in the armed rebellion in the North Caucasus region, where Chechnya is located.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who postponed a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, has promised the capture of the organizers of the attack. He also announced aa strengthening security measures at all airports in Russia and other other large platforms of transportation.
The police presence has been strengthened, according to the sources in the Moscow metro, which has been targeted in recent years of several suicide bombings, the last in March 2010, had forty dead. Shortly after the explosion, condemnation from the international community poured. The NATO chief, Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he was "shocked" by the suicide attack and assured that the alliance was with Russia in combating terrorism.
The President of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy said he was "outraged" by the attack and called for further and "punish" the perpetrators, in a statement. The UN chief, Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attack and said he was "horrified" by the explosion. Nicolas Sarkozy has also denounced an attack "heinous" and "barbaric and cowardly terrorist act".
In a statement released by the Elysee, he also says "the authorities of the Russian Federation of the full solidarity of France". For his part, President of the United States, Barack Obama, "strongly condemns" the attack and evokes an act "disgusting" by the voice of his spokesman, Robert Gibbs.
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