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Putin vows to punish bombers
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THE Kremlin braced yesterday for a violent return of guerrilla warfare as the toll in one of the most brutal series of bombing attacks recorded in the Chechen conflict rose to 24 dead and 143 injured.
Russian security sources said they had discovered and defused three more car bombs in the rebel province overnight and flatly laid the blame for Saturday's strikes in southern Russia on Chechen guerrillas.
A spokesman for separatist President Aslan Maskhadov denied any responsibility for the bloody violence. However it appears uncertain how many of the Chechen fighters are currently under his direct control.
Twenty-five of those were injured in Saturday's three nearly-simultaneous blasts, officials said yesterday.
The blasts caused one of the heaviest death tolls from bomb attacks in Russia proper since the Kremlin launched its self-styled “anti-terrorist" ground offensive in the republic on October 1, 1999.
Security sources said that the entrance to all Russian villages neighbouring Chechnya in the southern republic of Dagestan were currently blocked by armed police.
They were also conducting identity checks — detested by many of the villagers — in their search for the culprits in Saturday's strikes.
Putin quickly sent a message of condolence to the victims' families, regretting that “once more, blood has been spilled and civilians have become the victims of cruel terrorist acts".
Putin promised that “those who planned and carried out these despicable murders will be found and punished".
“These people (terrorists) can only be dealt with harshly. They don't understand any other language," Putin added.(SD-Agencies)
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