Two female suicide bombers have blown themselves up aboard packed underground trains at the height of the rush hour in Moscow this morning, killing 38 people and leaving an estimated 65 injured, according to the Russian security service.

President Dimitri Medvedev is due to make a television address later today. He has already pledged no let up in the war against terrorism and promised a security crackdown on public transport.

The first blast came at the Lubyanka station in central Moscow at around 8am (0400 GMT), killing 24 people. The station is deep below the headquarters of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, and is just yards away from the Kremlin.

Around 40 minutes later the second explosion happened a 15 minute journey away at Park Kultury station, near Gorky Park, killing around 12. Both stations are situated on Moscow's busy Red underground line, or line number one.
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A report of a third attack at Prospekt Mira station was not confirmed. Much of the city's underground system is still running despite the attacks.

The blasts have brought the Russian capital to a standstill, with parts of the sprawling Metro system halted in case of further attacks and traffic gridlocked. Emergency services were calling in helicopters to take the wounded to hospital, amid delays in bringing some of the injured to the surface.

An emergency meeting was convened at the Kremlin, where Alexander Bortnikov, the director of the FSB, told Mr Medvedev that the bombers were probably Chechens, based on a preliminary examination of their body parts scattered at the scene of the explosion. He did not elaborate.

Mr Medvedev told security chiefs: "The policy to suppress terrorism in our country and the fight with terrorism will be continued. We will continue the operation against terrorists without hesitation and until the end."

Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister, is being kept informed about the attacks while on a trip to Siberia. Mr Putin cemented his power in 1998 by launching a bloody but successful war to overthrow the separatist government in Grozny, the Chechen capital.

Irina Andrianova, a Russian Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman, said that in both cases the blast happened inside the carriage of a Metro train after it had pulled into a station, so that commuters were killed both on the packed platforms and inside the trains.

An FSB source said that the blasts were caused by two women wearing belts packed with explosives. "The characteristics of the injuries of the dead and injured people along with the marks inside the attacked carriages tell us that the bombs were activated by suicide bombers," said the source. "Of course, we will know for sure only after all the necessary tests, but the preliminary information is that there were women suicide bombers behind the attacks."

Female bombers, calling themselves Black Widows and claiming to avenge the tens of thousands of the men killed in Russia's two Chechen wars of the 1990s, have in the past been a feared aspect of Chechen terrorism.

Because, you know, people who arbitrarily capitalize letters and include ellipsis in their sentences without control totally have the liberty of calling an intelligent person retarded. I've completely disregarded the fact that you don't know shit about grammatical syntax ("womans rights"); how about you go back to elementary school Language Arts? You know, that place where you pissed yourself in the middle of class and everyone made fun of you?

When I read posts by you, my sides ache from laughing and it makes me glad that even inbreds can afford a shitty PC and DSL. By the way: you should feel like a dumbass if my posts provoke an emotional response out of you. As plenty of /chan/related sites will tell you, don't feed the troll.

Oh and, btw: the article is about a group called the Black Widows - Chechen terrorists who happened to have made attacks before Overlord Bush made any plans of a "war on terror." That being said, no: the US and its allies have nothing to ****ing do with it, moron.

lmao it would appear my post sparked an emotional response out of you. Apologies for the incorrect grammar, I had no idea shovenist Nazi's payed any attention in Language Arts class, thus I figured you wouldn't notice, douche.

Your ability to differentiate between an emotional response and an intelligent retaliation seems a bit rusty.

It's spelled chauvinist not shovenist, yet I fail to understand what a German political group has to do with being a chauvinist.

lol considering the Nazi party spans across the globe centralizing them in germany seems like something I fail to understand. The Nazi term was an assumption... Based on his post regarding Womans Rights i'm assuming he's more than just ANTI-WOMEN and their rights for equality. Thanks for the concern.

lol considering the Nazi party spans across the globe centralizing them in germany seems like something I fail to understand. The Nazi term was an assumption... Based on his post regarding Womans Rights i'm assuming he's more than just ANTI-WOMEN and their rights for equality. Thanks for the concern.

People who make arguments just for the sake of it are pretty much nobs.

If I choose to start a thread where 10 year olds can debate about things they don't know the first thing about, I'll PM you

And this is why women shouldn't have rights.

the article is about a group called the Black Widows - Chechen terrorists who happened to have made attacks before Overlord Bush made any plans of a "war on terror."

Officials blamed the attacks on Muslim groups from the northern Caucasus, where rebels have been waging violent campaigns for independence...
...No group has said it carried out the attacks.