Suicide Bomber Reportedly Injures Six People In Russia’s North Caucasus

Several Russian media outlets, citing sources close to law enforcement, are reporting that a suicide bomber has injured at least six people in the North Caucasus region of Karachai-Cherkessia.

The reports say a man detonated a bomb near a police station in the village of Uchkeken on December 11, killing himself and injuring others, including police officers and passersby.

The site has been cordoned off by police as investigators arrive at the scene.

Karachai-Cherkessia is one of several autonomous republics making up Russia’s restive, mostly Muslim-populated North Caucasus, which has long been plagued by criminal violence and Islamic radicals who have mounted frequent attacks against police, public officials, and moderate Muslims in the region.

However, rights activists have criticized security officials and police in the region — which also includes the volatile republics of Chechnya, Daghestan, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria — for abuse of power, human rights violations, fabricating criminal cases, torture, and extrajudicial killings.