 Russia's daily Kommersant showed the suspect with her late husband |
The 17-year-old widow of a North Caucasus militant is suspected of being one of the suicide bombers who attacked the Moscow metro on Monday.
Police in southern Russia confirmed to the BBC that they had given Moscow colleagues information about Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova, from Dagestan. The morning rush-hour bombings killed 39 people and injured more than 70, most of whom are still in hospital.
Dagestan, like nearby Chechnya, is struggling to quell militant violence.
A police spokesman said Abdurakhmanova had been married to a leading Islamist militant, Umalat Magomedov, who was killed by Russian security forces at the end of last year.
He would not confirm that she was definitely one of the metro bombers.
But a photograph of her published in a leading Russian newspaper, Kommersant, does bear a strong resemblance to a picture of the remains of one of the suicide bombers, the BBC's Richard Galpin reports from Moscow.
'Black widows'
Abdurakhmanova is believed to be the bomber who attacked the Lubyanka metro station on Monday, killing 20 people, Kommersant reported.
Doku Umarov: 'I promise you that the war will come to your streets'
Abdurakhmanova came from Dagestan's Khasavyurt district, on the border with Chechnya, police say. She is believed to have travelled to Moscow by bus with the other female suicide bomber, from Kizlyar, a town that is also near the Chechen border.
On Wednesday 12 people, nine of them police officers, were killed in two suicide bombings in Kizlyar.
In Moscow, the news that the attacks were carried out by women fuelled speculation that they were so-called "black widows" - women married or related to militants killed by Russian forces in areas such as Dagestan, Ingushetia and Chechnya.
Black widows have been involved in several major attacks in the North Caucasus and in Moscow.
Rebel's video warning
Unnamed Federal Security Service (FSB) officials say Magomedov was an associate of Doku Umarov, the Chechen rebel leader who said he ordered Monday's metro attacks.
In a video message posted on a rebel website, Mr Umarov warned Russians to prepare for more attacks.
On Thursday Russian President Dmitry Medvedev flew to Dagestan's capital Makhachkala to hold emergency talks with the leaders of Russia's troubled North Caucasus republics.
"We must deal sharp dagger blows to the terrorists; destroy them and their lairs," Mr Medvedev said.
"The list of measures to fight terrorism must be widened. They must not only be effective but tough, severe and preventative. We need to punish."
The attacks came almost a year after Mr Medvedev declared an end to Russia's "counter-terrorism operations" in Chechnya, in a bid to "further normalise the situation" after 15 years of conflict that claimed more than 100,000 lives and left it in ruins.
Despite this, the mainly Muslim republic continues to be plagued by violence, and over the past two years Islamist militants have stepped up attacks in neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Mr Umarov said the attacks were an act of revenge for the killings of Chechen and Ingush civilians by the Russian security forces near the town of Arshty on 11 February.
The rebel, who styles himself as the Emir of the Caucasus Emirate, said attacks on Russian soil would continue.
BBC
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