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Woman Says Ingush Suicide Bomber Was Not Her Son


A suicide bomb attack killed seven police officers in the Ingushetian village of Sagopshi on August 19.
A suicide bomb attack killed seven police officers in the Ingushetian village of Sagopshi on August 19.
The website Chechenews has posted a statement in which the mother of the man identified as having killed seven police officers at a funeral in the Ingushetian village of Sagopshi one week ago says the suicide bomber was not her son.

In her statement, addressed to five Russian human rights organizations, Lyuba Aldiyeva said that the facial features and feet of the suicide bomber which were shown to her for the purpose of confirming his identity were not those of her son, Khamzat.

She said she has given DNA samples to facilitate identification but has not been informed of the results. She added that “many” local officials and police officers similarly do not believe the bomber was Khamzat Aldiyev.

The Ingushetian police said shortly after the blast on August 19 that the man who perpetrated it was Khamzat Alidiyev. The daily “Kommersant” reported on August 22 that Aldiyev’s family had not positively identified him because they feared relatives of the seven police officers killed in the blast would exact revenge.

Aldiyeva confirmed in her statement that she is indeed afraid of reprisals against her family. She asks the human rights activists for their help in suspending the positive identification of the bomber as her son pending the findings of the DNA analysis.

Meanwhile, Republic of Ingushetia head Yunus-bek Yevkurov is quoted as telling Interfax on August 25 that Khamzat Aldiyev’s parents share responsibility for the suicide bombing insofar as they “failed to bring him up properly.”

“If Khamzat Aldiyev had respected his parents, his relatives, and his fellow villagers, he would never have done such a thing,” Yevkurov said.

In their statement acknowledging that the suicide bomber targeted the wrong man, the commanders of the Ingushetia wing of the North Caucasus insurgency did not identify the bomber by name.

About This Blog

This blog presents analyst Liz Fuller's personal take on events in the region, following on from her work in the "RFE/RL Caucasus Report." It also aims, to borrow a metaphor from Tom de Waal, to act as a smoke detector, focusing attention on potential conflict situations and crises throughout the region. The views are the author's own and do not represent those of RFE/RL.

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