00:00At 10.15 this morning, a large explosion ripped through the center of Cherno-Gorsk in the northern province of
00:06Cherno-Rusk.
00:06An improvised explosive device hidden inside a stationary car was detonated, killing six people and wounding another 38, many critically.
00:15Cherno-Russian separatists have claimed responsibility for the attack, which is the seventh such bombing in the area since elections
00:22in February.
00:23The latest bombing is attributed to an extremist wing of the Cherno-Russian Red Star Movement, led by notorious war
00:29criminal Andrei Lopitev.
00:31Since 1995, the Red Star Movement held a large presence in the northern province of Cherno-Rusk, which they claimed
00:37as an independent country, South Zagoria.
00:40In 2007, government forces with NATO backing quelled the insurgency and briefed civil war.
00:46Lopitev, whose campaign of ruthless violence earned him the nickname Akula, or Shark in Russian, has recently escalated his group's
00:53terrorist activities by means of intimidation, propaganda, and recruiting among the ethnic Russian minority.
00:59Mikula Bardak, spokesperson for the Red Star Movement Party, has denied any connection to the bombings and denounced it as
01:06an act of violence committed most likely by anti-Russian groups.
01:10Minister Alexander Baranov has stated that rapid reaction elements of the Cherno-Russian defense forces are to be immediately deployed
01:17to bring order and security to the region.
01:20Baranov insists that martial law will not be necessary, as the military actions will primarily focus on insurgent assembly areas
01:26and training camps in the border mountains.
01:28Moscow has warned the Cherno-Russian government that any apparent infringement of Russian sovereignty during the proposed military actions may
01:36result in reciprocal military measures aimed at defending Russian national security.
01:40The Republic of Cherno-Rusk's president has dismissed the Russian concerns as unnecessary.
01:46Despite there being a relatively large presence of United States military in the region, as well as a number of
01:52NATO advisory teams within the Cherno-Russian defense force itself,
01:55the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Lee Seavers, has stated that no military will be involved in any counterinsurgency campaign.
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