Rebels strike again in Dagestan

MAKHACHKALA/MOSCOW, SEPT 5: At least 20 people were killed and over 100 injured in an explosion at a Russian military barracks in Dagesta...

MAKHACHKALA/MOSCOW, SEPT 5: At least 20 people were killed and over 100 injured in an explosion at a Russian military barracks in Dagestan even as around 2,000 Islamic militants from Chechnya crossed over to the southern Russian republic early on Sunday triggering fresh violence in the region.

The Islamic rebels struck early Sunday morning in Buinaksk where a powerful car bomb destroyed a five-storey residential block in the local cantonment. Those dead in the explosion include children and family members of the army officers, Radio Ekho Moskvy reported quoting authorities in Dagestan.

Russian officials blamed the bomb attack on Islamic militants, who have been fighting federal forces in the region for the past one month. Hours after the explosion, thousands of Chechan fighters led by Shamil Basayev crossed the border from neighbouring Chechnya and seized four villages in Novolaksky district. Meanwhile, the Russian army continued its battle to seize Wahhaabite strongholds of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi inBuinaksk district, Russian media reported.

The security forces also foiled militants8217; attempt to explode the military hospital after Sappers defused one ton of RDX loaded in a truck just 15 minutes before it was supposed to go off, Itar-Tass reported.

Earlier last month, after three week long fierce fighting, the federal troops had driven out the Islamic guerrillas led by chechen warlord Shamil Basayev and international terrorist Khattab, who had reportedly received special training in terrorist camps in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

According to the Russian media reports Saudi billionaire Osama Bin Laden had allocated 25 million to Basayev and Khattab for creating an Islamic state in the Caucasus from the Caspian to Black Sea, where he plans to make a safe haven for him.

8220;Bin Laden is confident that the United States, which had hit Afghanistan with cruise missiles to destroy him will not target the territory of Chechnya, formally a part of the Russian federation,8221; Moscow weekly Kommersant-Vlastreported noting that during August8217;s foiled campaign Basayev and Khattab had spent only a fraction8217; of Bin Laden8217;s 25 million.

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Laden also visited a guerrilla training camp in Chechnya in August shortly before the start of a rebel offensive in Dagestan, according to a report by the Interfax news agency on Sunday quoting sources in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Bin Laden, who is accused by the United States of masterminding the bombing of two US embassies in Africa last year and to be in hiding in Afghanistan, was reported to have spent a week at a training camp at Sershen-Yurt, in central Chechnya, before rebels forces entered Dagestan.