Bomber sets off deadly attack at Chechnya parliament

GROZNY, Russia - Islamic insurgents including a suicide bomber stormed Chechnya's parliament yesterday, leaving six people dead and 17 injured in one of the most brazen attacks on the provincial capital in months, officials said.

Ten years after the latest separatist war in the volatile region in southern Russia and after a decade of roundups and disappearances of Islamic suspects, it appears that Chechnya's Kremlin-backed administration still can't stop separatists from trying to blow up parliament.

The attack left a grim scene, with body parts and a decapitated corpse lying on the ground near shattered window glass. Interior Ministry special forces paced the area in camouflage fatigues, wielding grenade-launching Kalashnikov rifles.

Chechnya, part of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, has been battling an Islamist insurgency for years despite the iron rule of its Moscow-backed president, Ramzan Kadyrov. Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev was in Grozny for talks with Kadyrov about recent violence.

Kadyrov sought to play down the attack, saying the assailants were quickly killed. His office said Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev called him to offer assistance.

The White House condemned the attack and offered condolences to the families of the dead and wounded.

A Chechen police spokesman told The Associated Press that a militant set off a bomb at the gates of the parliament complex, killing himself. Two other gunmen ran into the building shouting "Allahu akbar!" (God is great) as they opened fire on the people inside, he said.

Two police officers and a parliamentary official were killed in the attack and at least two insurgents were slain in an ensuing firefight, officials said.