December 10, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 15, 1424

MOSCOW, Dec 9: The bomb blast that killed at least five people and injured 10 others near the Kremlin in the heart of Moscow on Tuesday was the latest in a spate of suicide bombings in the country, mostly attributed to Chechen fighters.

Following is a list of the worst such attacks since 2001:

2001

March 23: Three car bombs explode in the troubled north Caucasus region, bordering Chechnya, killing 23 and injuring 90 in Stavropol and the neighbouring republic of Karachayevo-Cherkesya.

Aug 29: Twelve people — six civilians, four Russian soldiers and two local military employees — die in a car bomb explosion in a Chechen village.

2002

April 18: A landmine explodes under a police bus in Grozny, killing 18.

May 8: A bomb attack during a military parade in Kaspiysk, in the north Caucasus republic of Dagestan, leaves 43 people dead.

Aug 6: Eleven policemen are killed when a landmine explodes under their truck in Shatoy, southern Chechnya.

Aug 19: Chechens shoot down a Russian Mi-26 helicopter near Grozny - 121 dead.

Sept 17: A remote-controlled bomb explodes in a busy Grozny street, killing 18 civilians, including two children.

Oct 10: A bomb attack on a Grozny police station leaves 22 dead in the bloodiest action against the pro-Russian police force since the Russian invasion in Oct 1999.

Oct 23-26: Forty-one Chechen rebels,including 19 women, hold 800 people hostage in a Moscow theatre for 57 hours before Russian forces storm the building, killing all the rebels and 129 hostages.

Dec 27: Suicide bombers drive two explosives-packed vehicles into the pro-Russian Chechen government building in Grozny, killing 83 and the three bombers.

2003

April 15: Sixteen civilians die when a bomb explodes on a bus near the Chechen town of Khankala.

May 12 and 14: Two suicide bombs in 48 hours, claimed by warlord Shamil Basayev kill 60 in a government building in Znamenskoye, north of Grozny, and 18 at a religious parade in the eastern village of Iliskhan-Yurt.

June 5: Twenty die when a female suicide bomber detonates a bomb on a bus packed with Russian air force personnel in the town of Mozdok in North Ossetia.

July 5: Two female suicide bombers kill 20 people and injure 30 at a Moscow rock concert.

Aug 1: Fifty die and 80 are injured when suicide bombers attack a military hospital in Mozdok with a truck packed with explosives. The attack is claimed by Shamil Basayev.

Dec 5: A bomb rips through a Russian commuter train in the Stavropol district near the Chechen border killing 44 people and injuring more than 150. —AFP