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Global

Suicide bomber kills five in southern Russia


    MAKHACHKALA, Russia (Reuters) - At least five people were killed and 35 wounded on Sunday when a suicide bomber attacked troops at a firing range in Russia's southern region of Dagestan, sources in official security agencies said.

    The bomber detonated a car packed with explosives at the firing range outside the town of Buynaksk, about 50 km west of the local capital Makhachkala, said the sources, who declined to be identified.

    Russia is fighting an Islamist insurgency in the mainly Muslim republics like Dagestan that make up its SOUTHERN (SO.NY)flank in the Caucasus.

    There has been a surge in violence over the past two years in the North Caucasus, where Russia has fought two wars against Chechen separatists since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

    (Writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Ralph Gowling)