Rebels stage suicide attack on Chechen parliament

GROZNY, Russia, (Reuters) – Islamist rebels killed at  least four people today as they tried to seize Chechnya’s  parliament in a brazen suicide attack that showed Russia has  failed to quell insurgency on its southern flank.
Three rebels burst into the parliament compound in the  Chechen capital of Grozny at 0845 local time (0445 GMT) as  deputies arrived for work and began the attack, which lasted  until government forces stormed the building.
One blew himself up and two others went on the rampage  inside, spraying bullets around as they screamed “Allahu Akbar”  (“God is Greatest”), a Reuters source who spoke to a witness at  the parliament building said.
The remaining two attackers holed themselves up on the  ground floor and then blew themselves up when forces loyal to  Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov stormed the building.
“A special operation to destroy the insurgents has taken  place,” Kadyrov said in a brief statement. He said that all the  deputies and other people inside the building had been freed.
Earlier, Russia’s federal Investigative Committee said four  attackers had been killed.
Interfax news agency also reported that the rebels had taken  hostages but it was impossible to confirm this.
At least 17 people were injured in the attack, one of the  most brazen in Grozny for years. Russia’s leaders are struggling to contain a growing  Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus, a strip of  impoverished, mainly Muslim provinces along predominantly  Orthodox Christian Russia’s southern border.