Police identify kamikaze Chechen bomber

The kamikaze bomber who died in Gudermes, Chechnya, on Tuesday has been identified. The Chechen Interior Department told Interfax on Wednesday that he was Magomet Umarov, 44, from the village of Meskety in the Nozhai-Yurt district. The man had a criminal record, The Russia journal writes. The Interior Department said Umarov, carrying explosives on him, made several attempts to approach positions belonging to the law-enforcement forces but was stopped. At the last moment, he tried to break through to a marketplace, threatening to blast alcohol peddlers. The police were forced to open fire on Umarov 10 meters outside the fence of a secondary school, fearing that he may try to enter the schoolyard and blow himself up there. The explosion occurred outside a building under construction. Umarov failed to come any closer than 300 meters to office buildings. The Interior Department said the well-organized actions of the police prevented casualties that would have been inevitable if the explosion had occurred in a crowded place. The investigation is trying to establish whether Umarov was acting on his own or on orders from a rebel group or command.