Doku Umarov Claims Responsibility for Moscow Metro Bombings

A Chechen militant has claimed responsibility for the deadly tube bombings in Moscow as two new suicide bomb attacks targeting police officers in southern Russia left 12 people dead.

Doku Umarov, who leads Islamic militants in Chechnya and other regions in Russia's North Caucasus, said in a video posted on a pro-rebel website that Monday's twin suicide attacks were an act of revenge for the killing of civilians by Russian security forces.

He warned that attacks on Russian cities would continue, Press Association reports.

Thirty nine people died in the carefully co-ordinated attacks and a further twelve people died in a double suicide bombing on Wednesday in Dagestan, a restive region some one thousand miles to the south of the Russian capital.

Dressed in combat fatigues and sporting a long beard, the Chechen rebel leader appeared to be in a forest in southern Russia, a favoured hiding place for Islamist militants. He said he considered the metro bombings a legitimate form of revenge and “laughed off” accusations that he was a terrorist, claiming the real terrorist was Mr Putin, the Russian prime minister, Telegraph.co.uk says.