Death Toll in Moscow Domodedovo Terrorist Attack Rises to 35

More on the attack at Moscow's Domodedovo airport.

The death toll in what is being described as “clearly a terrorist act” at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport has risen to at least 35:

Moscow saw its second suicide attack in less than 12 months on Monday as a terrorist assault on the Russian capital’s busiest airport left over 30 dead, officials said.

Preliminary reports suggest a bomb was detonated by a suicide bomber as passengers arrived at Domodedovo airport’s international arrivals gate at 4:40 p.m. (13:40 GMT).

Health and emergency officials said 35 people died and many dozens more were injured.

Planes from London and Brussels, as well as Greece, Ukraine and Egypt, had landed in the 30 minutes preceding the attack. A British Airways plane heading for Domodedovo returned to London when the news broke.

Law enforcement officials said the power of the blast was equal to 5 kg of TNT and that the bomb was packed with metal objects to cause maximum damage. A RIA Novosti correspondent at the scene reported floors and staircases covered in blood.

RIAN is reporting that more than 40 people are in critical condition and that Russia’s intelligence service had advanced warning of the possibility of an attack at the airport.

RF President Medvedev has cancelled his planned trip to Davos to deal with the aftermath of the attack.

Details of the attack are beginning to emerge. Pravda has reported that the suicide attacker’s last words were “I’ll kill all of you!” He was apparently scheduled to travel to the Northern Caucasus which lends some credence to the supposition that he was Chechen.

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Dave Schuler
About Dave Schuler
Over the years Dave Schuler has worked as a martial arts instructor, a handyman, a musician, a cook, and a translator. He's owned his own company for the last thirty years and has a post-graduate degree in his field. He comes from a family of politicians, teachers, and vaudeville entertainers. All-in-all a pretty good preparation for blogging. He has contributed to OTB since November 2006 but mostly writes at his own blog, The Glittering Eye, which he started in March 2004.

Comments

  1. ponce says:

    How sad that frequent terrorist attacks of similar size in Iraq and Afghanistan hardly get mentioned any more.

  2. Dave Schuler says:

    Damned if I do and damned if I don’t. If I report terrorist attacks in Iraq, I get complaints that too much attention is being paid to the Middle East. If I report a terrorist attack elsewhere, I get complaints that I’m ignoring the terrorist attacks in Iraq.

  3. James Joyner says:

    Dave: Indeed.

    Ponce: While I take your point, minor attacks in places with an ongoing insurgency become background noise at some point. Attacks on pure civilian targets in civilized airports are still newsworthy, I’d think.

  4. ponce says:

    Terrorist attacks in Russia could also be considered “ongoing.”

  5. Franklin says:

    Since that Russian journalist asked Gibbs whether our recent incident was due to our freedoms, some American journalist should think of something snarky to ask Putin or Medvedev. Oh, wait, we probably aren’t allowed to ask any questions …

  6. michael reynolds says:

    Damn you Dave.

  7. PD Shaw says:

    Where is the Palin angle, Dave?

  8. PD Shaw says:

    I regret that remark.

  9. Dave Schuler says:

    Where is the Palin angle, Dave?

    I’m sure somebody can find one. Didn’t she once say that she could see Russia from her front porch? That sounds like the seed of a connection right there.

  10. Al Dorman says:

    When are we going to recognize that our “wars on terror” much more closely mirror Russia’s unending and cynical campaign in the North Caucasus than the struggle against Fascism? The state-terror / terrorist strike loop a hazard that our politicians all neglect to warn us of.

  11. Steve Plunk says:

    Radical Islam at war with the world. When are we going to recognize it’s a religion easily turned to hate and violence? I suppose they’ll want to build a mosque at the site of this tragedy now.