BACKGROUND: Terrorist attacks in Russia

Mar 29, 2010, 12:04 GMT

Hamburg - The suicide bombings at two Metro train stations in Moscow on Monday were the latest in a series of terrorist attacks in Russia over the past decade.

Following is a list of some of the worst such acts of terrorism:

*** br November 27, 2009: Twenty-six people are killed during an attack on an express train going from Moscow to St Petersburg. Some 100 others are injured. Days later, Islamist extremists claim responsibility for the attack and warn of a 'sabotage war' against Moscow's 'bloody occupation policy' in the Caucasus.

August 17, 2009: A suicide bomber in a pick-up truck carrying 200 kilograms of explosives blows himself up in the city of Nazran in the Russian republic of Ingushetia. At least 25 people are killed, while more than 200 are injured.

August 21, 2006: A shrapnel bomb explodes at a market in Moscow, killing 10 people and injuring more than 50.

October 13, 2005: Islamist rebels attack the southern city of Nalchik in the Kabardino-Balkar Republic. At least 137 people are killed in the clashes that follow, including 92 rebels, 33 security forces and 12 civilians.

July 19, 2005: A bomb attack on militias in Snamenskoye, north- west of the Chechen capital Grozny, claims at least 14 lives and injures 34.

June 12, 2005: A bomb is remotely detonated along a railway line near Moscow. Several carriages of a train travelling from Chechnya are derailed. Forty-two people are injured.

September 1, 2004: Thirty-two gunmen attack a school in Beslan, a town in the autonomous Caucasus republic of North Ossetia-Alania, and hold more than 1,100 children, parents and teachers hostage for 52 hours. In all, 331 of the hostages and 31 terrorists are killed.

February 6, 2004: A bomb in a Moscow subway kills some 40 commuters. Police say the suicide bomber is of Chechen origin.

August 24, 2004: Two passenger jetliners, with terrorists carrying explosive devices on board, crash in western Russia, killing 90.

December 27, 2002: A suicide bomber drives an explosives-laden truck into government buildings in Grozny, killing 60 people.