MOSCOW, August 22 (RIA Novosti) - Part of an oil pipeline in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia was damaged early Tuesday in a suspected terrorist attack. Two explosions went off simultaneously, causing an oil spill and fire, local police said.
"[Suspected] criminals planted two powerful hollow-charge devices on the pipeline, and both detonated almost simultaneously," a police spokesman said, adding that it took firefighters three hours to extinguish a 20-meter-high pillar of fire near the village of Voznesenskaya.
He said authorities have opened a criminal case in the matter, which investigators consider a terrorist attack.
In late January, two blasts on pipelines running through southern Russia cut gas supplies to Georgia and Armenia, and an explosion hit a high-voltage electricity transmission tower near the city of Karachayevsk in Russia's North Caucasus, causing blackouts in much of Georgia.
