May 13, 2003	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 10, 1424

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MOSCOW, May 12: Two suicide bombers drove a truck full of explosives into a government complex in Chechnya on Monday, killing 40 people in the deadliest attack since a March vote anchored the Muslim region firmly in Russia.

The blast in Znamenskoye, in the relatively peaceful north of the territory, wounded some 200 other people.

A defiant President Vladimir Putin vowed not to let the attack derail the Kremlin’s peace plan. “We can not allow anything like this to happen, nor will we,” he told ministers.

Soldiers guarding the administration building, which also housed the local FSB security services, opened fire on the truck, but it smashed through barriers before exploding in a fireball only metres short of the main building.—Reuters