Moscow Airport Explosion: At Least 23 Dead at Domodedovo Airport

By Samuel Bryant

Reposts are coming in of an explosion at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport. The number of victims continues to rise. What the Russian goverment initially reported as ten causalities, has now climbed to 23. Another 130 have been reported injured.

The BBC reported that Russia’s Chief investigator has blamed terrorists for the blast. Russia has experienced a string of deadly attacks in recent years. There were many bombings in 2010, including the Moscow Metro bombings which left 40 dead and over 100 injured.

Speculations abound, over the involvement of the Islamist insurgency thriving in the North Caucasus. After  the 2010 metro bombings Dokka Umarov, one of the main leaders of the rebels, claimed responsibility for the attack. He also threatened more attacks, unless Muslim states in the North Caucasus receive independence.
A Briton on the scene told BBC news,

“We were walking out through the exit of the arrivals hall towards the car, and there was this almighty explosion, a huge bang, we didn’t know it was an explosion at the time, and my colleague and I looked at each other and said ‘Christ that sounds like a car bomb or something,’ because the noise was, literally, it shook you,”

Reuters news agency reported another eyewitness account,

The explosion was right near me, I was not hit but I felt the shockwave; people were falling. Smoke started to gather – there was a lot of smoke. Many of the injured went outside on their own in a state of shock. Then they began to announce information about where to exit.

The attack was supposedly carried out by a suicide bomber, and unconfirmed reports say that Russian investigators have recovered the head of the attacker.

It seems that world powers cannot avoid conflict with Islamic insurgencies. Russia has the North Caucasus region, while China deals with attacks hailing from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; America travels the furthest for the fight. These numerous conflicts between modern nation states and Islamic militants, points to a clash of world views. One side sees itself as fighting the threat of terrorism, while the other sees it actions as resistance against foreign imperialists. Each side sees itself in the right. But on both sides civilians pay for the ongoing conflict.