Time line

MAJOR TERRORIST ATTACKS IN RUSSIA

June 1995

Chechen rebels seize hundreds of hostages in a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budennovsk. More than 100 people are killed during the assault and a botched Russian commando raid.

January 1996

Chechen fighters take hundreds hostage in another hospital, this time in Kizlyar, Dagestan, and move them by bus to Pervomayskoye on the Chechen border. Most rebels escape but many hostages are killed during a rescue attempt.

September 1999

Bombs destroy apartment blocks in Moscow, Buynaksk and Volgodonsk. More than 200 people are killed.

Oct 23-26, 2002

Russian troops storm a Moscow theater where rebels had taken 700 people captive three days earlier; 129 hostages and 41 Chechen guerrillas are killed.

Aug 1, 2003

A suicide bomber driving a truck packed with explosives blows up a military hospital in Mozdok. Fifty people are killed.

Dec 5

An explosion tears through a morning commuter train just outside Yessentuki station in Russia's southern fringe, killing 46 people and injuring 160.

Feb 6, 2004

A suicide bombing kills at least 39 people and wounds more than 100 on an underground train in Moscow.

June 22

Rebels seize an Interior Ministry building in Ingushetia and attack other locations. At least 92 people are killed.

Aug 24

Two Russian passenger planes are blown up almost simultaneously, killing 90 people. One Tu-134, flying to Volgograd, goes down south of Moscow. Moments later a Tu-154 bound for Sochi crashes near Rostov-on-Don.

Sept 1-3

A total of 331 hostages - half of them children - die in a chaotic storming of a school in Beslan, after it is seized by rebels demanding Chechen independence.

Aug 17, 2009

A suicide bomber drives a truck into the gates of the main police station in Nazran, the largest city in Ingushetia, killing 20 people and wounding 138 others.

March 29, 2010

Two female suicide bombers from Russia's Dagestan region set off explosives on the subway system, killing 40 people.

Jan 24, 2011

A suicide bombing at a baggage claim area of the Domodedovo International Airport kills 37 and injures 178.

Oct 21, 2013

A female suicide bomber with links to Islamists fighting federal forces kills six people aboard a crowded bus in Volgograd.

Sources: Guardian, China Daily

(China Daily 12/30/2013 page12)