Domodedovo International Airport bombing | |
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Part of Insurgency in the North Caucasus, Terrorism in Russia and Islamic terrorism in Europe | |
Location | Domodedovo Airport Domodedovsky District, Moscow Oblast, Russia |
Date | 24 January 2011 16:32 MSK [1] (UTC+03:00) |
Target | Domodedovo Airport |
Attack type | Suicide bombing |
Weapons | Improvised explosive device |
Deaths | 37 [2] (+1 bomber) |
Injured | 173 |
Perpetrators | Caucasus Emirate Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade [3] |
The Domodedovo International Airport bombing was a suicide bombing in the international arrival hall of Moscow's Domodedovo International, in Domodedovsky District, Moscow Oblast, on 24 January 2011.
The bombing killed 37 people [2] and injured 173 others, including 86 who had to be hospitalised. [4] Of the casualties, 31 died at the scene, three later in hospitals, one en route to a hospital, [5] one on 2 February after having been put in a coma, and another on 24 February after being hospitalised in grave condition. [2]
Russia's Federal Investigative Committee later identified the suicide bomber as a 20-year-old from the North Caucasus, and said that the attack was aimed "first and foremost" at foreign citizens. [6]
Domodedovo International is located 42 kilometres (26 mi) southeast of central Moscow and is Russia's second largest airport, with over 22 million passengers passing through in 2010. It is heavily used by foreign workers and tourists. [4]
In 2004, two aircraft which had just taken off from Domodedovo were bombed by female Chechen suicide bombers.
The city of Moscow had seen a number of significant bomb attacks in the years prior to the incident. In 2004, two separate attacks on the Moscow Metro, one by a male suicide bomber on 6 February and another by a female suicide bomber on 31 August, killed a total of 51 people; in 2006, 13 people were killed in a market bombing; and in March 2010, 40 people were killed in further suicide bombings on the Moscow Metro.
The explosion affected the baggage-claim area of the airport's international arrivals hall. [1] Some reports have suggested that the explosion was the work of a suicide bomber, with investigators saying the explosion was caused by an "improvised device packed with shrapnel, pieces of chopped wire" and the force equivalent to between two and five kilograms of TNT. [7] Russia's chief investigator has stated the explosion was the work of terrorists. [4] Investigators found a male head and believed it might have been that of the suicide bomber. [7] [8]
According to Russian newspaper accounts, the bombing was carried out by two suicide bombers, a man and a woman. Another three accomplices who had kept their distance from the blast were sought, [9] but the source of the attack remained unclear. Security experts speculated that the attackers may have been Islamist militants from the North Caucasus, though this was not confirmed. The attack may have been an act of revenge for recent anti-militant operations, including the killing of Pakhrudin Gadzhiyev in Dagestan the previous Friday. Gadzhiyev was suspected of organizing suicide attacks in 2010. [7]
The first identified casualty was 29-year-old Ukrainian playwright Anna Yablonskaya, author of more than a dozen plays. Half an hour before the explosion, Yablonskaya had arrived on a flight from her native city of Odesa to receive an award at a ceremony for young playwrights established by Cinema Art magazine. [10] [11] [12]
On 25 January, the Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) published the list of casualties. [13] Twenty-six out of 35 dead were identified.
According to Vladimir Markin, a representative of the Russian Federation Investigative Committee, two British citizens died in the blast, [14] however, the BBC in a later article mentioned only one British citizen among the dead, as well as one German citizen. [15] Gordon Cousland, an analyst for CACI, was confirmed to be a British citizen, [16] while another victim, Kirill Bodrashov, who had been listed as a British citizen by EMERCOM, [13] was a Russian citizen who lived in London for several years. [17] The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported that a Bulgarian man was among the casualties; [18] however, it was later clarified that the ethnic Bulgarian who had died in the blast actually had Austrian citizenship. [19]
According to the Slovak embassy in Moscow, Slovak actress Zuzana Fialová and Slovak actor Ľuboš Kostelný were injured in the blast. [20]
Country | Dead [21] | Injured [22] |
---|---|---|
Russia | 29 | 57 |
Austria | 2 | |
Germany | 1 | 1 |
Tajikistan | 1 | 8 |
Kyrgyzstan | 1 | |
Uzbekistan | 1 | 1 |
United Kingdom | 1 | |
Ukraine | 1 | |
Nigeria | 2 | |
Slovakia | 2 | |
France | 1 | |
Italy | 1 | |
Moldova | 1 | |
Serbia | 1 | |
Slovenia | 1 | |
Citizenship undisclosed | 39 | |
Total | 37 | 87[ citation needed ] |
A number of flights originally bound for Domodedovo were redirected to Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport following the attack. [7] Russian authorities directed all of the country's airports to immediately begin inspecting all visitors before allowing them to enter the airports. [23] However, this practice was ruled illegal by an appellate court in June 2011. [24] The express commuter trains that run from Domodedovo to the city were operating free of charge. [25] The trains from other Moscow airports, where flights originally scheduled to land at Domodedovo were diverted to, were also running free of charge. [26]
At Domodedovo, the surge of emergency vehicles caused public transportation delays. In response, citizens volunteered to carpool passengers to Moscow, and taxi drivers slashed their rates. [27]
The blast was followed by a drop of almost two percent at the Moscow stock exchange (MICEX). [1]
On 8 February 2011, a faction of the Caucasus Emirate led by Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the attack, [28] [29] and threatened further attacks. [30] In the video in which Doku Umarov claimed responsibility for the bombing, he took the opportunity to lash out, calling the major powers in the world "satanic". He criticised the US and Russia for being hypocrites, reasoning that if they actually followed their own principles, they would have to surrender world power to China, due to the senior status of Chinese culture and religion. [31] He said, according to the logic of Russia and America, "China should then rule the world. They have the largest and most ancient cultures". [32] He also attacked the US, Russia, Britain, and Israel for oppressing Muslims.
In the aftermath of the explosion, Russia's Investigative Committee stated that the bombing was aimed "first and foremost" at foreign citizens, adding that "it was by no means an accident that the act of terror was committed in the international arrivals hall". [33]
On 7 February 2011, Russian officials identified the suspected suicide bomber as 20-year-old Magomed Yevloyev, born in the village of Ali-yurt, Ingushetia (not to be confused with the journalist of the same name killed in 2008).[ citation needed ]
Magomed Yevloyev's 16-year-old sister Fatima Yevloyeva and friend Umar Aushev were suspected of collaboration in the Domodedovo attack and detained in February 2011. They were released a few months later, but remained under investigation for illegal possession of firearms. [34] In September, Yevloyeva and Aushev were no longer considered suspects, and were cleared of all charges. [35]
In February and March 2011, Russian law enforcement agencies conducted special operations against members of the Caucasus Emirate in Ingushetia, during which they arrested several associates of Magomed Yevloyev, including Islam and Ilez Yandiyev. [36] [37]
By October 2011, four alleged associates of Yevloyev had been arrested: the Yandiyevs, Bashir Khamkhoyev, and Akhmed Yevloyev, Magomed's 15-year-old brother, who had allegedly helped assemble the bomb. They were charged with terrorism, formation of or participation in illegal armed bands, assault on a police officer, and illegal possession of firearms and explosives. [38] Doku Umarov, who claimed responsibility for the attacks, was never apprehended.
A year after the event, in January 2012, the Investigative Committee reported that the investigation was complete, and the final version of the indictment against Yevloyev, Khamkhoyev, and the Yandiyevs was to be brought by March 2012. [39]
The trial in the case ended on 11 November 2013. Khamkhoyev and both Yandiyevs were given life sentences, and Akhmed Yevloyev was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. [40]
A separate investigation was conducted into the lax or inefficient security measures that were in place at the Domodedovo airport at the time of the attack.[ citation needed ]
It was reported that Doku Umarov had planned to follow the Domodedovo attack with two additional bombings in Moscow. An attack in Moscow's Red Square was planned for New Year's Eve, 2011, but it was foiled when the suicide bomber accidentally triggered the bomb in a hotel room in Kuzminki District, killing herself in the explosion. [41] Another bombing was to be carried out by a Slavic Russian couple who had converted to Islam, and become members of Caucasus Emirate. However, they were unable to leave Dagestan, and instead committed two separate suicide bombings in the village of Gubden on 14 February 2011, killing two policemen and injuring 27 people.[ citation needed ]
On 11 November 2013, four men received jail terms for the offences including commissioning an act of terror, murder and attempted murder. Islam and Ilez Yandiyev and Bashir Khamkhoyev were sentenced to life terms in a penal colony, while Akhmed Yevloyev was jailed for 10 years as he was a minor at the time of the attack. The government's investigators said that the bombing was carried out by Magomed Yevloyev, Akhmed's brother, on the orders of the leader of the Caucasus Emirate, Doku Umarov. The convicted were accused of sheltering the bomber in Nazran, Ingushetia, providing him with money and putting him on a bus to Moscow in preparation for the attack. The investigators also said that his attack was plotted at a camp run by the Caucasus Emirate in Ingushetia. [42]
President Dmitry Medvedev apportioned some blame to poor security at Domodedovo and sacked several officials – said to include a regional transport chief and a Moscow police deputy head; [43] he also announced that he would delay his departure to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. [7] Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the bombing as an "abominable crime," and vowed that "retribution is inevitable." [44]
In an interview with NTV on 31 January, the President of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov said that the bombing was most likely staged by the USA; [45] [46] he also previously had made statements in which he blamed the US for staging terrorist acts in Russia or for providing financial and technical support to its perpetrators. [47] Senior Russian lawmakers Alexander Torshin and Vladimir Kolesnikov blamed the government of Georgia and its Ossetian agents for the bombing, an allegation that was swiftly condemned by the Foreign Ministry of Georgia as a "purposeful provocation". [48] [49]
The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, the former separatist government in exile (which split from the other half which would become the Caucasus Emirate in 2007), released a statement sending condolences to the victims, suggesting the attackers may have been desperate, traumatized and hopeless, and strongly condemning the bombing. [50]
Many world leaders expressed their condolences to Russia following the attack. [51] [52]
European Union president Herman Van Rompuy said that those responsible for the attack must be punished. [53] UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen also expressed condolences. [51]
The Brazilian Ministry of External Relations stated that "the Brazilian Government is saddened to learn of the attack at Moscow's Domodedovo airport, which resulted in the loss of many lives". According to the note, the Brazilian Government, "in denouncing the action of radical groups that resort to violent acts against civilians, reiterates its staunch condemnation of such attacks, regardless of its motivations". [54]
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu expressed condolences to the people of Russia and the Russian government on behalf of the people of Israel: "Terrorism is global and the response to terror must be global." [7]
Condolences were sent by: [51] [55]
Others included leaders or officials from: [51] [57] Abkhazia, [58] Afghanistan, [59] Albania, [60] Angola, [61] Armenia, [62] Australia, [63] Azerbaijan, [64] Belarus, [65] Canada, [66] Chile, [67] China, [68] Colombia, [69] Cuba, [70] Finland, [71] Georgia, [72] Hungary, [73] India, [74] Iran,[ citation needed ] Mexico, [75] North Korea, [76] New Zealand, [77] Nicaragua, [78] Pakistan, [79] Palestine, [80] Poland, [81] Romania, [59] South Ossetia, [82] Syria, [83] Ukraine, [84] United Arab Emirates, [85] Venezuela, [86] and Vietnam. [87]
Moscow Domodedovo International Airport, formally Domodedovo Mikhail Lomonosov International Airport, is an international airport serving Moscow, the capital of Russia. It is located in Domodedovo, Moscow Oblast, 42 kilometres (26 mi) south-southeast from the city centre of Moscow. Domodedovo Airport serves regular flights across Russia, as well as to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and it is the third largest airport in Russia and the CIS after Sheremetyevo and Pulkovo. Domodedovo Airport is among the top twenty busiest airports in Europe. In 2022, the airport served 21.2 million passengers.
On the night of 24 August 2004, explosive devices were detonated on board two domestic passenger flights that had taken off from Domodedovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia, causing the destruction of both aircraft and the loss of all 90 people on board them.
Ali Musaevich Taziev, also known as Akhmed Yevloev, Magomet Yevloyev, and Emir Magas; born 19 August 1974) is the former leader of both the Ingushetia-based Ingush Jamaat and as the military wing of the Caucasus Emirate. On 30 September 2006, Taziev was appointed to the post of commander of the Caucasian Front by the orders of Dokka Umarov. In July 2007, one year after Shamil Basayev’s death, Taziev became his official successor as the most high-ranking military commander in the rebel forces. He is believed to be personally responsible for the death of several local high-ranking security officials.
Doku Khamatovich Umarov, also known as Dokka Umarov as well as by his Arabized name of Dokka Abu Umar, was a Chechen mujahid in the North Caucasus. Umarov was a major military figure in both wars in Chechnya during the 1990s and 2000s, before becoming the leader of the greater insurgency in the North Caucasus. He was active mostly in south-western Chechnya, near and across the borders with Ingushetia and Georgia.
Domodedovo is a city in Moscow Oblast, Russia, located 37 kilometers (23 mi) south of the capital Moscow. The population estimated in different years are 152,404 (2021 Census); 96,145 (2010 Census); 54,080 (2002 Census); 55,294 (1989 Soviet census).. The increase of population is due to the merger of three neighboring inhabited localities into the town in 2004.
In June 2000, the North Caucasian Chechen separatist-led Chechen insurgents added suicide bombing to their tactics in their struggle against Russia. Since then, there have been dozens of suicide attacks within and outside the republic of Chechnya, resulting in thousands of casualties among Russian security personnel and civilians. The profiles of the suicide bombers have varied, as have the circumstances surrounding the bombings.
Terrorism in Russia has a long history starting from the time of the Russian Empire. Terrorism, in the modern sense, means violence against civilians to achieve political or ideological objectives by creating extreme fear.
The February 2004 Moscow metro bombing occurred on 6 February 2004 when a male suicide bomber killed 41 people near Avtozavodskaya subway station on the Zamoskvoretskaya Line in Moscow. Up to 250 people were injured in the incident, some of the more common injuries being broken bones and smoke inhalation.
The Caucasus Emirate, also known as the Caucasian Emirate, Emirate of Caucasus, or Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus, was a jihadist organisation active in rebel-held parts of Syria and previously in the North Caucasus region of Russia. Its intention was to expel the Russian presence from the North Caucasus and to establish an independent Islamic emirate in the region. The Caucasus Emirate also referred to the state that the group sought to establish. The creation of Caucasus Emirate was announced on 7 October 2007, by Chechen warlord Dokka Umarov, who became its first self-declared "emir".
Riyad-us Saliheen was the name of a small "martyr" (shahid) force of suicide attackers. Its original leader (amir) was the Chechen separatist commander Shamil Basayev. In February and March 2003, the group was designated by the United States and subsequently by the United Nations as a terrorist organization. After several years of inactivity, Riyad-us Saliheen was reactivated by the Caucasus Emirate in 2009 under the command of Said Buryatsky; following his death, Aslan Byutukayev became its new leader.
The 2010 Moscow Metro bombings were suicide bombings carried out by two female Islamic terrorists during the morning rush hour of March 29, 2010, at two stations of the Moscow Metro, with roughly 40 minutes in between. At least 40 people were killed, and over 100 injured.
The 2010 Chechen Parliament attack took place on the morning of 19 October 2010, when three Chechen militants attacked the parliament complex in Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic, a federal subject of Russia. At least six people were killed, including two police officers, one parliament employee and all three suicide commandos.
Hanna Hryhorivna Mashutina, known under her pseudonyms Anna Yablonskaya or Hanna Yablonska, was a Ukrainian playwright and poet, and one of the victims of the 2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing.
The 2011 Minsk Metro bombing took place on 11 April 2011 when 15 people were killed and 204 were injured when a bomb exploded within the Minsk Metro, Belarus. The explosion happened at the central Kastryčnickaja station at 17:55 local time.
Aslan Avgazarovich Byutukayev, also known as Emir Khamzat and Abubakar, was a Chechen field commander in the Islamic State (IS) Wilayah al-Qawqaz, the commander of the Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs and a close associate of the deceased Caucasus Emirate leader Dokka Umarov. Byutukayev was listed as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by the United States on 13 July 2016. He was killed by Russian special operatives in January 2021.
Dmitry Vladimirovich Kamenshchik is a Russian businessman, chairman of Moscow Domodedovo Airport, the sole shareholder in Moscow Domodedovo Airport, owner of DME Ltd., the Airport holding company.
In December 2013, two separate suicide bombings a day apart targeted mass transportation in the city of Volgograd, in the Volgograd Oblast of Southern Russia, killing 34 people overall, including both perpetrators. The attacks followed a bus bombing carried out in the same city two months earlier.
On 3 April 2017, a terrorist attack using an explosive device took place on the Saint Petersburg Metro between Sennaya Ploshchad and Tekhnologichesky Institut stations. Eleven people were initially reported to have died, and five more died later from their injuries, bringing the total to 15.
Saratov Airlines Flight 703 was a domestic passenger flight from Moscow Domodedovo Airport to Orsk Airport in Russia. On 11 February 2018, the aircraft serving the flight, an Antonov An-148-100B, crashed shortly after take-off, killing all 71 people on board – 65 passengers and six crew members.
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