It looks like the Chechens have found somebody else actually willing to flip the switch:
An explosion tore through a subway car in the Moscow metro during morning rush hour Friday, killing 39 people, according to the Interfax news agency, and wounding more than 100 others in what appeared to be the deadliest terrorist blast to hit the capital since Russia launched its second war in Chechnya.After their recent human reliability problems, it's good for the Chechens to know they can have a woman they can count on next time to... um, never mind.
Officials differed over whether the blast, which hit five weeks before Russia's presidential election, had been caused by a suicide bomber. Deputy Moscow Mayor Valery Shantsev said that investigators had not found metal shrapnel, which usually fills suicide bombers' explosives. He said that the bomb had likely been in an attache case or rucksack on the floor of the subway car.
The Interfax news agency, citing unnamed police sources, said the attack was carried out by a female suicide bomber. Police have a videotape of the suspected attacker and her alleged accomplice standing on the metro platform before boarding the train, Interfax reported.
Yesterday wasn't all bad, though. It appears we got an 'own goal' from the Palestinians:
A leader of the military wing of the Hamas militant group was killed last night in an explosion that rocked his home in a Gaza Strip refugee camp, medics and witnesses said.
Witnesses said they saw Israeli helicopters hovering over the Bureij camp shortly after the blast killed the militant, identified by Hamas officials as Abdel Naser Abu Shuka, 36.
. . .
The Israeli Army denied that the military was involved in the explosion. "There were no forces in the area, neither on land nor in the air," when the blast occurred, a spokesman told Reuters.
An Israeli military source said the army suspected that Abu Shuka died in an accident while preparing an explosive.
Palestinian security officials said they were investigating whether Abu Shuka was killed by a booby-trapped package or by an explosive detonating accidentally in his hands.
As Nelson Muntz would say: "Ha-ha!"
Reminds me of a report that I had either read, watched, or heard about. It had more to do with the unibomber than anything else, but... The reporter asked a government official how many of these people die while making explosive devices. The official, with out hesitating, replied, "Not enough of them."
Heh. The euphemism I've heard for this kind of thing is "Palestinian work accident." Somebody call OSHA!
Well, I suppose this ought to make NOW and other militant feminist organisations happy... equal rights for suicide bombers have long been delayed.
Heh. I can hear the protest march slogans now:
"What do we want?"
"C-cup explosive vests!"
"When do we want them?"
"Now!"
or
"Keep your codex off our Semtex!"