At least 20 die in Russia blasts

Kremlin officials have linked the blasts to Chechen rebels

MINERALNYE VODY, Russia -- At least 20 people were killed and more than 90 injured when three bombs exploded near Russia's breakaway Chechnya province.

Eighteen people died and 81 others were injured when a car bomb ripped through a market in the town of Mineralnye Vody in the Stavropol region, a regional police spokesman said.

In the neighbouring republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia two police bomb experts died when a suspect car they were inspecting exploded.

Twelve others were hurt, two seriously, when a third bomb exploded near a police station in the Stavropol town of Yessentuki.

AUDIO CNN's Steve Harrigan: A chaotic border region 432kb/40secs. AIFF or WAV sound

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks, which happened within minutes of each other, but senior Kremlin officials linked Chechen rebels to the bombs.

Mineralnye Vody, Yessentuki and Karachayevo-Cherkessia are all located within 100 miles northwest of Chechnya.

President Vladimir Putin summoned his security chiefs for an emergency meeting, and dispatched the head of the FSB domestic security service, Nikolai Patrushev, to the region.

In Mineralnye Vody, mangled bodies of victims cut down by the powerful explosion were strewn across the street, lying where they fell beside burst shopping bags.

Some of the victims received attention in the street where they lay, as police and the security services sealed off the area.

The twisted remains of the car carrying the device, and the wreckage of other vehicles were scattered across roads.

At least one person has been detained in connection with the blasts

Some buildings were damaged by the force of the blast, which occurred around 10 a.m. (0700 GMT), blowing out shop windows.

Sergei Ivanov, secretary of the influential Security Council that advises Putin, said Chechen rebels had probably launched the attacks in response to Moscow's efforts to restore order in the breakaway region.

"It's obvious that these were terrorist acts," Ivanov said in comments broadcast on Russia's ORT television.

"Much has been said that the predictable and clear policies of the federal centre will make the leadership of the Chechen armed groups turn to the tactic of terrorist attacks, and not just in the territory of Chechnya.

"This is what is going on now," he said.

Russian forces withdrew from Chechnya at the end of the 1994-96 war, but returned in 1999 after rebels invaded a neighbouring Russian region and after apartment building bombings, blamed on rebels, killed 300 people in Moscow and other cities.

The spokesman said one person had been detained in connection with the Karachayevo-Cherkessia blast.

The Chechen rebel leadership has made no comment on the attacks. Its Web site, www.kavkaz.org, carried a news report of the attacks but no claim or denial of responsibility.

The Associated Press & Reuters contributed to this report.

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Chechen rebels

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