Blasts damage oil pipeline in Ingushetia

RIA Novosti, Russia
August 22, 2006

MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) – Part of an oil pipeline in Russia’s
North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia was damaged early Tuesday in a
suspected terrorist attack. Two explosions went off simultaneously,
causing an oil spill and fire, local police said.

"[Suspected] criminals planted two powerful hollow-charge devices on
the pipeline, and both detonated almost simultaneously," a police
spokesman said, adding that it took firefighters three hours to
extinguish a 20-meter-high pillar of fire near the village of
Voznesenskaya.

He said authorities have opened a criminal case in the matter, which
investigators consider a terrorist attack.

In late January, two blasts on pipelines running through southern
Russia cut gas supplies to Georgia and Armenia, and an explosion
hit a high-voltage electricity transmission tower near the city of
Karachayevsk in Russia’s North Caucasus, causing blackouts in much
of Georgia.