Bomb Hits Gas Line In Russia's South, Disruption Small

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) – A bomb destroyed part of a main gas pipeline in Russia’s Muslim region of Dagestan, but supply disruptions are expected to be minimal, the regional division of Gazprom said.

“Unknown people blew up the Mozdok-Kazimagomed pipeline at its 496th kilometre, causing a fire,” an official from the firm, who declined to be identified, told Reuters by telephone.

The pipeline takes gas from Caspian fields in Azerbaijan to the Russian heartland through the turbulent North Caucasus.

Russia is fighting an escalating Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, particularly in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya, and President Dmitry Medvedev has called the upsurge in violence the country’s biggest domestic political problem.

Last week a suicide bomb killed seven policemen and wounded 20 in Dagestan, prompting Medvedev to say Moscow would eliminate “bandits” in the North Caucasus.

NY Times