Female suicide bomber injures 18 in Dagestan

MAKHACHKALA, Russia -- A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the southern Russian region of Dagestan yesterday, injuring at least 18, including two children and five police officers, authorities said.

The bomber, identified as a wife of two Islamic radicals killed by security forces, detonated an explosives-laden belt in the provincial capital, Makhachkala, police said.

It was the first suicide bombing in Dagestan since the Boston Marathon attacks in April. The Tsarnaev brothers suspected in the Boston bombings lived in the turbulent Caucasus province before moving to the United States.

Since 2000, at least two dozen women, most of them from the Caucasus, have carried out suicide bombings in Russian cities and aboard trains and planes. They are often called "black widows" in Russia because many are widows, or other relatives, of militants killed by security forces. -- AP