Suicide Bombers Strike Again In Russia, Killing At Least 12

There have been more deadly bombings in Russia, this time in the southern province of Dagestan.

"Two suicide bombers, including one impersonating a police officer, killed at least 12 people and injured 18 others" there today, the Associated Press writes. "Nine police officers were among the dead."

The attacks follow by just two days the twin suicide bombings in the Moscow subway system. At least 39 people were killed by those explosions, and many more were wounded. The subway attacks have been blamed on "black widows" trained by Islamist insurgents from the Caucasus region.

Peter Van Dyk, reporting for NPR from Moscow, says the second of today's bombs went off amidst a group of police officers who were investigating the first explosion. It's thought that the attacker was disguised as a police officer, he reports:

The AP adds that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said today's blasts may have been organized by the same militants who attacked the Moscow subway:

"I don't rule out that this is one and the same gang," Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying at Cabinet meeting. The powerful former president previously vowed to "drag out of the sewer" the terrorists who carried out the Moscow attacks, which killed 39 and injured scores more.

Last week, NPR's David Greene reported from Dagestan about that "violence worn republic."

"In Dagestan and in the nearby republics of Chechnya and Ingushetia," David reported, "militants have vowed to create an independent Islamic state. The Russian government, under former President Vladimir Putin, responded brutally. Medvedev, the current president, has kept up the pressure. He recently described extremism in this region as a cancerous tumor.

"Many in Dagestan, like Svetlana Isayeva, say they don't believe Medvedev's new promise to build up the economy."

Here is his story:

Update at 9:10 a.m. ET. A photo taken today in Moscow, where people were mourning those killed in the bombings there: