Moscow says bomb brought down airliner

A bomb brought down at least one of the two Russian airliners that crashed almost simultaneously this week, officials in Moscow said yesterday, after traces of an explosive previously used by Chechen rebels were discovered in the wreckage.

The FSB domestic security service said it was also investigating the backgrounds of two Chechen women who bought tickets on both flights shortly before they took off from Moscow's Domodedovo airport en route to different cities in southern Russia.

No relatives have come forward to claim the remains of either woman, officials said, and the body of one of them was far more badly damaged than those of other passengers on the Tu-154 plane that went down in the Rostov region, close to Ukraine.

Ms Elena Butyrina, a spokeswoman for Russia's Emergencies Ministry, told the AFP news agency that one of the woman's legs was found in the rear toilet of the plane, while other parts of her body were discovered in wreckage some 1.5 miles away.

Chechnya's moderate separatists have denied any link to the attack, and dismissed a claim of responsibility for them yesterday that was posted on an Islamist website.

"The Islambouli Brigades declare that our mujahedeen have succeeded in hijacking two Russian planes," the statement said, claiming that it had five operatives on each plane and that the attacks would "be followed by a series of operations aimed to back and assist our brothers in Chechnya and other regions suffering under Russia".

Russian and international terror experts immediately cast doubt on the claim. They said it was far more likely that one or two women had boarded each plane with a small amount of explosive, just enough to rupture a plane's fuselage and cause it to break up under the stresses of flight at more than 30,000 feet.

The Kremlin has repeatedly claimed that Chechnya's separatist movement has been co-opted by groups linked to al-Qaeda, who now fund the most radical rebels and demand spectacular attacks as proof that their cash is being well spent.

"The government will now be able to say that the fight against separatists in Chechnya comes under the roof of international terrorism. As soon as they say that, you can forget about human rights in the region," said security analyst Mr Andrei Soldatov.

The plane crashes, which were preceded by a hijack alert from at least one of the airliners, raised fears of a wave of violence from the rebels ahead of tomorrow's election to find a new president in Chechnya, after the last one was assassinated in May.

The Russian press lambasted the government for taking almost three days to acknowledge foul play in the plane crashes.