At least 35 people were killed by twin explosions at the height of the rush hour in what appears to be Chechen separatists' latest salvo in their long-running battle for independence in Russia's northern Caucasus. Russian officials said the blasts were a "terrorist act carried out by female suicide bombers. Chechens, the majority of whom are Sunni Muslims, regard the region as their ancient homeland, while Moscow fears the creation of an independent Muslim-majority state in its midst and has refused to grant any real autonomy.

BBC reports on the motive for such attakcks The question of why these women have been prepared to take their own lives in order to kill others has been given a partial explanation.Two of the women who joined the Moscow theatre siege are reported to have been sisters seized from their homes in a Chechen village by Russian soldiers and gang-raped.