Major Attacks in Moscow Since 1999

 AFP/APP

Paris: Russia is reeling from a mass shooting and blaze at a Moscow rock concert, which the government has labeled a “terrorist attack.”.

Here, the AFP looks back at previous attacks on the city in the past 25 years. 

1999: City Mourns: 118 Perish

A bomb blast in the early hours of September 13, 1999, at an eight-story apartment building in southeast Moscow killed 118 people. 

The attack was one of five on apartment buildings that left a total of 293 people dead over a two-week period in Moscow and southern Russia.

Moscow blames the attacks on separatist “terrorists” from the mainly Muslim North Caucasus republic of Chechnya.

President Vladimir Putin uses the attacks to justify launching a campaign to crush a separatist insurgency in Chechnya.

2002: Theater Hostage Crisis, 130 Dead

A group of 21 male and 19 female Chechen rebels stormed Moscow’s Dubrovka theater on October 23, 2002, during a musical and took more than 800 people hostage. 

The standoff with security forces lasts two days and three nights.

It ends when the security forces inject gas into the theater to overpower the attackers and then storm it. A total of 130 hostages were killed. Most died by choking on the gas.                

2003: Concert Attack: 15 Lives Lost

On July 5, 2003, two female suicide bombers, identified by Russia as Chechen separatists, blew themselves up during a rock concert at the Tushino airfield near Moscow, killing 15 people and injuring around 50 others.

Around 20,000 fans had come to hear some of Russia’s top bands at the annual Krylya (Wings) festival.    

2004: Fatal Metro Bombing

On February 6, 2004, a little-known Chechen group detonated a bomb in a packed Moscow subway during rush hour, killing 41 people.

2010: Deadly Metro Explosion

On March 29, 2010, another two female suicide bombers blew themselves up on the Moscow subway.

Forty people were killed in the attacks, one of which targeted Lubyanka station, beside the headquarters of the FSB intelligence services.

The two bombers were from the volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan. 

The Caucasus Emirate group of Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov claims responsibility.

2011: Tragic Airport Massacre

On January 24, 2011, a suicide bomber struck the arrivals hall of Moscow Domodedovo International Airport, killing 37 people.

The Caucasus Emirate group claims responsibility for the attack.