The European Union on Monday condemned a deadly bomb attack in Russia’s restive southern republic of Ingushetia, calling it ”a brutal act” of terrorism.
The Swedish EU presidency said in a brief statement that it ”condemns today’s [Monday] terrorist attack in Nazran, Russia, and conveys its deepest condolences to the families of the victims of this brutal act.”
A truck packed with explosives rammed through the gates of a police compound in Nazran, the main city in Ingushetia, earlier on Monday, killing at least 20 people and wounding dozens more in an apparent suicide attack.
The EU presidency expressed ”its sympathies with the Russian government and the Russian people at this difficult time”.
Ingushetia is one of seven administrative territories known as ”republics” that constitute the North Caucasus region in southern Russia, long the most unstable part of the country.
Moscow has struggled to impose the Kremlin’s authority in the volatile North Caucasus region, which has been the site of two full-fledged wars in Chechnya and countless attacks since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. — AFP
