ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia -- A female suicide bomber blew herself up Sunday near a base of a security force commanded by a son of Chechnya's Kremlin-appointed administration chief, wounding a woman who was nearby, officials said.\nThe attack, which occurred southeast of the provincial capital of Grozny, appeared aimed at the administration chief Akhmad Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, Chechnya's Emergency Situations Minister Ruslan Avtayev said. He said one woman was slightly wounded in the attack.\nThe attacker approached a building where Ramzan Kadyrov was reviewing members of the force, and guards thought she looked suspicious. "They asked her to halt, and at that moment the explosion rang out," Samail Saraliyev, a spokesman for Akhmad Kadyrov, said on NTV television.\nNobody claimed responsibility for the attack.\nThe bomber was about 20 years old, the Interfax news agency reported, citing unidentified sources in the regional Interior Ministry. Authorities were searching for another woman after hearing reports that a second bomber had been planning an attack on the younger Kadyrov, according to Interfax.\nFemale suicide bombers have carried out several attacks in Chechnya and Moscow in recent months.\nRamzan Kadyrov is distrusted by many Chechens who are wary of the power of his armed group and fear it is unlikely the group would be held accountable for its actions.\nAkhmad Kadyrov spoke out against Russia during the first of its two wars against Chechen separatists in the past decade, but later aligned himself with the Kremlin, which in 2000 appointed him to head the regional administration. He became its acting president in a March referendum in which voters approved a new constitution and plans for regional elections.\nAkhmad Kadyrov is widely expected to run in Chechnya's presidential election, scheduled for Oct. 5, but he has not announced his candidacy. Critics have suggested the election is an attempt to legitimize his control, but the Kremlin insists it will not back any candidate.\nRussian forces withdrew from Chechnya following a devastating 1994-1996 war that left separatists in charge, but the forces returned in 1999 after Chechnya-based militants invaded a neighboring region. The Kremlin also blamed rebels for apartment-building bombings that killed 300 people.
A double suicide bombing at a rock concert in Moscow on July 5 killed the female attackers and 15 other people. Soon afterward, a bomb, authorities said a woman from Chechnya brought to a downtown Moscow street, killed a bomb disposal expert.\nIn May in Chechnya, a suicide truck-bombing killed 72 people and a woman blew herself up at a religious ceremony, killing at least 18 people. In June, a female suicide bomber attacked a bus headed to a Russian military air base near Chechnya, killing herself and at least 16 others.\nMeanwhile, four Russian servicemen were killed and eight wounded in rebel attacks, clashes and mine explosions in Chechnya in the previous 24 hours, an official in the Moscow-backed administration said Sunday on condition of anonymity.
