Successive suicide bombings in Russia kill more than 30

Police officers detain people who gathered for an unsanctioned event in downtown Volgograd, Russia, on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013. Volgograd is about 400 miles northeast of Sochi, where the Olympics are to be held.
Police officers detain people who gathered for an unsanctioned event in downtown Volgograd, Russia, on Monday, Dec. 30, 2013. Volgograd is about 400 miles northeast of Sochi, where the Olympics are to be held.

MOSCOW — A suicide bomber killed 14 people aboard an electric bus in the southern Russian city of Volgograd during the Monday morning rush hour, and authorities believe it was the work of the same group that set off a bomb at the railway station a day earlier.

Together more than 30 people were killed in the explosions, putting the city of one million on edge and highlighting the terrorist threat Russia is facing as it prepares to host February's Winter Games in Sochi, President Vladimir Putin's pet project. While terrorists may find it hard to get to the tightly guarded Olympic facilities, the bombings have shown they can hit civilian targets elsewhere in Russia with shocking ease.

Volgograd, located about 400 miles northeast of Sochi, serves as a key transport hub for southern Russia, with numerous bus routes linking it to volatile provinces in Russia's North Caucasus, where insurgents have been seeking an Islamic state.

Vladimir Markin, the spokesman for Russia's main investigative agency, said Monday's explosion involved a bomb similar to the one used in Sunday's attack at the city's main railway station.

"That confirms the investigators' version that the two terror attacks were linked," Markin said in a statement. "They could have been prepared in one place."

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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