Twice widowed suicide bomber kills 1 in Russia's Dagestan

A suicide bomber identified as the widow of two Islamists blew herself up in Russia's Dagestan on Saturday, killing one person and wounding over a dozen in the second attack to hit the volatile northern Caucasus region this week, officials said. "In total, 14 people were hurt in the attack carried out by a female suicide bomber at the Dagestan capital Makhachkala," said Denis Strukov, a police spokesman. "One woman later died in hospital from her injuries," he added. Earlier in the day, the Dagestan health ministry had said that 18 people were wounded in the attack which struck not far from the interior ministry building in the centre of Makhachkala. An unidentified woman came up to traffic policemen and detonated an explosive, according to the Moscow-based Investigative Committee. "Two police who were closest to the suicide bomber are in an extremely serious condition," the regional police said earlier in a statement. It was unclear if the woman who succumbed to her injuries was one of the two. The force of the explosion was around 500 grams in TNT equivalent, the statement added. Russian anti-terror agency identified the suicide bomber as Madina Aliyeva, widow of two Islamists killed by Russian forces. Aliyeva "was married twice, first to Ali Aliyev, killed in the summer of 2009, and later to Kurban Dzhapayev, killed in the summer of 2012," said the agency in a statement quoted by news agency Interfax. Aliyeva, who died in the attack, had left her parents' home without any explanation, and had been reported missing since May 13, said a police source quoted by Interfax. State television broadcast a picture of a young woman, her head covered with a scarf, suggesting that she might have been behind the bombing. The latest attack in Russia's troubled northern Caucasus region comes after twin car bombs killed four people and wounded more than 40 in the same city on Monday. Dagestan is one of Russia's most violent regions. It experiences almost daily shootings and bombings that officials blame on local criminals and Islamists with links to Chechnya, where over the past 20 years the Kremlin has fought two wars. The region is also home to the parents of Boston marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.