Of course, that’s not a good enough answer for the pencil-pushers back home. Since we’re not fully manned, they’re sending us some extra bodies to get us up to 100 percent.

This is mostly a good thing. We can always use new blood. While they didn’t all volunteer to come here, most of the “augmentees” have taken to their new jobs with, if not with eagerness, at least with some degree of professional pride.

The notable exception is a guy that I will call “Tom.” Tom volunteered to come to campervan rental New Zealand. I’m always happy to have another volunteer, but I had to wonder why he chose to leave his own “safe” unit to come halfway around the world and perform a somewhat dangerous mission. I suspected that he was running away from something. As it turns out, Tom has a whole menu of personal issues, including a recent painful divorce, a run-in with law enforcement, and a diagnosed case of clinical depression.

Tom was acting strangely, and was displaying a little bit of a short temper that surfaced under stressful conditions. I asked a few of his fellow augmentees if they had any insights into his behavior, and that’s when the stories started to emerge.

(Memo to the personnel folks back in the rear: please don’t send me anyone who will create more work for me than he actually performs).

Tom had stopped taking his medication, because he “ran out and couldn’t get a refill.”

I sent him to a doc for a psych eval. The doc said to “keep him away from the weapons” until he has “stabilized” and could be “re-evaluated.” Needless to say, this somewhat limits his usefulness in a potential war zone. In the meantime, I’ve found a “safe” job for him to do, and continue to evaluate his behavior. He seems to be improving, but how can I be sure he won’t suddenly regress?

Then there’s the guy I’ll call “Frank.” Frank does his job, and does it well. At the same time, he makes it absolutely clear that he doesn’t want to be here. His current plan to get back home involves taking advantage of the archaic “last surviving male in the family” exception. This one dates back to the Civil War era, when it was critical for every family to have a male heir to carry on the family business or mind the farm. Those days may have long ago faded into memory, but Frank doesn’t care. He’d probably wear a dress like Corporal Klinger if he thought it would get him home.

What Frank has failed to realize, no matter how often we tell him, is that the time for him to claim this exemption has passed. It’s obvious to everyone involved that he is trying to “play” the system. His situation today is the same as it has been for several years, and he never said a word about it until he was mobilized. By volunteering to remain in the Reserves, he declared that he was willing and able to fight for his country in a time of need.

That time is now.

“Frankly,” I feel like strangling the sumbitch. It is clear that he was only in the Reserves for the extra money and the pension. Like many others, he was gambling that he would never be recalled to active duty. He lost that bet.

Now it’s time to pay the banker. Sorry, Frank.

In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said American forces killed five to 10 people in an attack on one target in southern Somalia believed to be associated with al Qaeda. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation’s sensitivity, said a small number of others present, perhaps four or five, were wounded.

The U.S. military is ready to carry out more strikes, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports. But whether it does will depend on getting good intelligence on the whereabouts of any al Qaeda operatives left alive.

A Somali lawmaker said 31 civilians, including a newlywed couple, died in Tuesday’s assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in a forested area close to the Kenyan border. The report could not be independently verified.

A Somali Defense Ministry official described the helicopters as American, but witnesses told The Associated Press they could not make out identification markings on the craft. Washington officials had no comment on the helicopter strike.

The U.S. is hunting down Islamic extremists, said the Somali defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

“These guys deserve to be dead,” said CBS News consultant Michael Schueur, a former CIA officer. “I hope we did get them, but in the strategic sense of ‘are we closer to winning this war?’ I think that’s probably not the case.”

On Monday, a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship conducted an initial strike – part of a wider air offensive against suspected members of al Qaeda – Martin first reported.

The Pentagon confirmed Monday’s strike targeting al Qaeda operatives late on Tuesday, but did not give any information on who was actually killed.

The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reported. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.

Earlier, Somalia’s president said that the U.S. was pursuing suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and that the effort has his support.

Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies were attacked in the capital late Tuesday by gunmen riding in two pickup trucks who fired two rocket propelled grenades, witnesses said.

The rocket attack was followed by several minutes of rifle fire. One Somali soldier was killed and two other soldiers and a bystander were wounded, said minibus driver Harun Ahmed, who took the injured to a hospital.

Col. Shino Moalin Nur, a Somali military commander, told the AP by telephone late Tuesday that at least one U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected al Qaeda training camp Sunday on a remote island at the southern tip of Somalia next to Kenya.

Somali officials said they had reports of many deaths.

On Monday, witnesses and Nur said, more U.S. air strikes were launched against Islamic extremists in Hayi, 30 miles from Afmadow. Nur said attacks continued Tuesday.

“Nobody can exactly explain what is going on inside these forested areas,” the Somali commander said. “However, we are receiving reports that most of the Islamist fighters have died and the rest would be captured soon.”

In Washington on Tuesday, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman spoke of one strike in southern Somalia, but would not confirm any of the details or say whether any al Qaeda militants were killed.

The assault was based on intelligence “that led us to believe we had principal al Qaeda leaders in an area where we could identify them and take action against them,” Whitman said.

Before his arrival, rumors were already flowing that every FOB (Forward Operating Base) Commander told General Casey that they already had another “DV” (Distinguished Visitor) to support while Sen. Kerry was in country — or that they would be in the middle of ongoing operations — and hence were unable to support his visit. This rumor was either sparked or confirmed by a post by Matt on Blackfive. (Blackfive, for those who don’t already read it, is an infinitely more interesting military blog than mine).

Hey, I just came from a meeting where they were trying to get some commander, any commander, in the Green Zone, to host Jawn Carri.

Swear to God, the CG is saying, “You can’t tell me you ALL have things going on at that time! Come on!”

So, it appears that JF’nK will be coming to the Palace at the Embassy Annex and sitting around sucking up coffee at the Green Bean while we all try to ignore him.

Me, I’m gonna get a picture with him.

While in Iraq, things didn’t get much better for Senator Kerry. Rumor has it that somebody gave his helicopter flights the designation “Weasel 61.” (Legend has it that when Senator Clinton visited Afghanistan, her bird was assigned “Broomstick 11″ as its code name). Before taking off, supposedly the helicopter pilot jumped out of the front seat while the rotor was turning (an extremely rare event), approached the rear of the bird, and asked Senator Kerry to autograph a copy of the photograph below:

On Saturday night, a colleague emailed me and told me to bring my camera, as Senator Kerry was scheduled to give a press conference here in the Palace. At 2100, he entered a conference room wearing his leather flight jacket. Unfortunately, there was no media there, except for the enlisted soldiers from AFTN (Armed Forces Television Network) who had to be there. His aide looked around, saw that this just wasn’t happening, and quickly escorted Kerry out before I could take a picture.

Finally, the next morning, Senator Kerry ate chow at the Dining Facility. Normally when a Senator/Representative visits, he is joined by a contingent of soldiers/Marines/airmen from his home state. Despite the fact that the MP unit responsible for Green Zone security is an Army Reserve unit from Massachusetts, not a single soldier went to sit with him. (By contrast, Bill O’Reilly, host of that terrible shoutfest on Fox, had over 400 soldiers waiting in line to meet him on Saturday).

Schaudenfraude is the German word for taking pleasure in somebody else’s suffering. I don’t know whether I should feel this or rather pity for Senator Kerry, who looked like a kid on his first day at a new school. I’m not sure what kind of a reception he expected to receive here given his “botched joke” before the election, but I’m debating whether to give him points for having the chutzpah to come to Iraq.

Khamenei is known to be suffering from cancer, and taking considerable quantities of an opium-based pain killer. He has lost more than 17 pounds in the past ten months, and was told last spring that he was unlikely to see another New Year (In the Iranian calendar, the New Year begins at the end of March).

Khamenei first complained of chills, and then broke out in a cold sweat. He lay down to rest, and began to lose feeling in his feet, at which point his aides got him to the hospital.

Amidst maximum security, and under orders that the event be kept secret at all costs, the theocrat was placed in one of the luxurious suites reserved for the country’s most important figures. Khamenei’s blood pressure and pulse were alarmingly low, and his physicians at

first feared some sort of hemorrhage. But they could find no trace of internal bleeding, and concluded that he had had some sort of cardiac crisis.

Khamenei is still undergoing tests and receiving maximum attention. It is clearly a serious problem because he wanted to leave the hospital, only to be talked out of it by the doctors. The precise gravity of his condition is not known, but the argument over the wisdom of moving him to his own home suggests it may be quite serious.

My sources for this information are a very knowledgeable Iranian cleric plus another Iranian who has previously provided strikingly accurate stories from the highest levels of the regime in Tehran, suggesting that a major crisis may be underway in Iran.

The Power Struggle

The Supreme Leader has good reason to keep his condition secret, and to seek to demonstrate he retains his ability to rule the country. Khamenei knows that his regime is riven by intense conflict, some of which has been dramatically exposed in recent weeks in the run-up to the election of a new Assembly of Experts (the clerical body whose main responsibility is the selection of the Supreme Leader).

News of Khamenei’s heart problems, especially if they turn out to be life-threatening, would undoubtedly catalyze the battle at the highest levels of the regime to control the choice of his successor. Recent events document both the intensity and the violence of the power struggle.

On November 27th, a military aircraft–an Antonov 74—headed for a military site near Tabriz crashed shortly after takeoff from Tehran. Nearly forty deaths were reported, including several top leaders of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, the country’s elite military organization. The dead included some of Khamenei’s closest allies and advisers, and their loss was a serious blow for him.

Most Iranians–who are in any case reluctant to believe in accidents when the mighty are killed–are convinced the plane was sabotaged, especially as this is the latest in a sequence of spectacular airplane disasters, producing high-level military casualties.

About a week earlier, a military helicopter came down, killing all six people on board. Last January, Ahmad Kazemi, the Revolutionary Guards’ ground commander, and seven other senior officers, were killed in the crash of a French-made Falcon, a small executive jet, near the Turkish border. Barely a month before, yet another military aircraft, a C-130, came down near Tehran airport, hit a ten-story building, and killed 115 people (mostly journalists).

A week ago, the Majlis (the national assembly) passed a law effectively reducing the presidential term of Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nezhad by a full year. This was universally seen as an attack in favor of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, Ahmadi-Nezhad’s most visible political rival, and a candidate to succeed Khamenei.

Meanwhile, as reported in Iran Press News, the ongoing public challenge to the regime itself continues unabated.

On Wednesday, thousands of students demonstrated on the campus of Tehran University, chanting “death to despotism,” and “death to the dictator.” And in Mazandaran Province, up by the Caspian Sea, thousands of angry workers protested in front of Ahmadi-Nezhad himself, announcing they were starving and demanding the government honor its promise to improve the lot of the poor.

As yet, news of the Supreme Leader’s medical problems has remained a secret, known only to a handful of trusted aides and colleagues. But it is only a matter of time before Khamenei’s condition becomes public knowledge. With unknown ramifications to the stability of Iran and the region at large.

He called for dialogue and “brotherhood” between faiths and urged religious leaders to reject attempts to wield political power.

Benedict also told Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that he backed Turkey’s bid to join the European Union, according to Reuters. Before becoming pope in 2005, Benedict had opposed Turkey’s entry.

Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the Vatican takes no political stand but supported Turkey’s entry into the EU “on the basis of common values and principles,” Reuters reported.

In addition, Benedict is expected to call for greater rights and protections for the Christian minority — there are only about 30,000 Roman Catholics in the nation of about 72 million Muslims.

The pope visited the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, and wrote in a guest book that Turkey is “a meeting point of different religions and cultures and a bridge between Asia and Europe,” reported the AP.

Security for Benedict’s visit included 3,000 police and sharpshooters. His visit had spurred protests based on remarks he made in a speech in September that quoted a 14th century Christian emperor who characterized the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings as “evil and inhuman.”

The remarks triggered a wave of anger in the Islamic world. Benedict later expressed regret for the violent Muslim backlash.

Gen. Lejeune’s order summarized the history, mission, and tradition of the Corps. It further directed that the order be read to all Marines on 10 November of each year to honor the founding of the Marine Corps. Thereafter, 10 November became a unique day for U.S. Marines throughout the world.

Soon, some Marine commands began to not only honor the birthday, but celebrate it. In 1923 the Marine Barracks at Ft. Mifflin, Pennsylvania, staged a formal dance. The Marines at the Washington Navy Yard arranged a mock battle on the parade ground. At Quantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Marine baseball team played a Cuban team and won, 9 to 8.

The first “formal” Birthday Ball took place on Philadelphia in 1925. First class Marine Corps style, all the way! Guests included the Commandant, the Secretary of War (in 1925 the term “politically correct” didn’t exist; it was Secretary of War, not Secretary of Defense), and a host of statesmen and elected officials. Prior to the Ball, Gen. Lejeune unveiled a memorial plaque at Tun Tavern. Then the entourage headed for the Benjamin Franklin Hotel and an evening of festivities and frolicking.

Over the years the annual Birthday Ball grew and grew, taking on a life of its own. In 1952 the Commandant, Gen. Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., formalized the cake-cutting ceremony and other traditional observances. For example, Marine Corps policy now mandates that the first piece of cake must be presented to the oldest U.S. Marine present. The second piece goes to the youngest Marine. Among the many such mandates is a solemn reading of the Commandant’s birthday message to the Corps.

Like the U.S. Marine Corps itself, the annual Birthday Ball has evolved from simple origins to the polished and professional functions of today. Nonetheless, one thing remains constant, the tenth day of November! This unique holiday for warriors is a day of camaraderie, a day to honor Corps and Country. Throughout the world on 10 November, U.S. Marines celebrate the birth of their Corps — the most loyal, most feared, most revered, and most professional fighting force the world has ever known.

Maintaining our principles in the face of terror is sometimes dangerous. Abandoning those principles would be even more dangerous.

Still, I am deeply concerned that some of those who insist that America not cede the moral high ground do not recognize that America stands on the moral high ground.

Those who would use abuses at Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay to accuse America of being no different than the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany, or Sadaam’s regime have lost all sense of moral clarity.

America is different because your citizens can protest without going to prison. America is different because your courts can defend rights and your press can expose injustice. America is different because your Congress can hold hearings and because your people can hold your leaders accountable. America is different because America is free.

In standing up against torture, I hope that all Americans will remember the profound moral divide that separates the free world from the world of fear and work to advance abroad the very principles you so rightly cherish at home.

Natan Sharansky, born Anatoly Sharansky in 1948, personified the desperate plight of many Soviet Jews. Caught in the vise of great power politics, Sharansky suffered a prolonged and difficult imprisonment because of his wish to emigrate to Israel and his prominence in the Helsinki Watch Group. Following his release, he was welcomed in Israel as a conquering hero.

After the Helsinki declaration guaranteeing human rights was signed in 1975, Sharansky helped organize the Helsinki Watch Group in Moscow, which was designed to monitor Soviet violations of the accord where he became the group’s leading spokesman.

Shcharansky soon fell victim to a classic entrapment. His roommate, secretly working for the KGB, made contact with U.S. Central Intelligence Agency agents in Moscow and apparently began passing information on the Helsinki Watch Group. American suspicions soon caused the ties to be broken, but the damage was done.

On March 15, 1977, surrounded by a crowd of Western reporters who Shcharansky had invited to walk with him to see what it’s like to be constantly shadowed,” he was arrested. In July 1977 the 30-year-old dissident went on trial for high treason, accused of passing information to an unnamed Western intelligence agency.

In late 1985, after the historic first meeting between Chairman Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan in Geneva, the new Soviet leader decided to make a gesture in the direction of improved relations. Still officially insisting that Shcharansky was a spy, the Soviets agreed to his release as part of an exchange of convicted espionage agents on both sides. He was released early on the morning of February 11, 1986

Steve Centanni, 60, and Olaf Wiig, 36, left Gaza and have since crossed into Israel after their release. The men left Gaza through the Erez border crossing.

The freeing of Centanni, a correspondent, and Wiig, a cameraman, ends the longest-running drama involving foreign hostages in Gaza.

The two journalists were dropped off at Gaza City’s Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials and appeared to be in good health. A tearful Centanni embraced a Palestinian journalist briefly as he entered, then rushed upstairs as Wiig followed.

Centanni, in a phone interview shortly after his release, said “I’m fine. I’m just so happy to be free.”

He said he was so emotional because he was out and alive.

“There were times when I thought ‘I’m dead,’ and I’m not,” Centanni said. “I’m fine. I’m so very happy.”

He recounted how he and Wiig were pulled out of their car on August 14 and taken at gunpoint into another car. The kidnappers blindfolded them and handcuffed their hands behind their backs with plastic ties. They were then transferred to another car and driven to a building that they later learned was a garage.

“We were pushed down onto the dirt-covered concrete floor and we were forced to lie face down with our handcuffs on,” Centanni said.

“Olaf was in the same room with me. Our shoulders were wrenched back, very painful.”

Both of the men were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint, Centanni said.

“We were forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint,” Centanni told FOX News. “Don’t get me wrong here. I have the highest respect for Islam, and I learned a lot of good things about it, but it was something we felt we had to do because they had the guns, and we didn’t know what the hell was going on.”

Centanni’s brother, Ken, spoke to FOX News directly after the news was released.

“It’s just a tremendous amount of relief, overwhelming relief,” he said.

Later Sunday, Centanni and Wiig appeared before reporters, then traveled to the Erez crossing into Israel to leave Gaza.

“I want to thank everybody. I am happy to be here. I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful and kind hearted,” Centanni told reporters. “The world needs to know more about them. Don’t be discouraged.”

Wiig also said he was worried that the kidnapping would scare off reporters.

“My biggest concern really is that as a result of what happened to us foreign journalists will be discouraged from coming to tell the story and that would be a great tragedy for the people of Palestine,” Wiig said. “You guys need us on the streets, and you need people to be aware of the story.”

Wiig’s wife, Anita McNaught, thanked Palestinian officials and FOX News for their efforts in getting the men released. The men refused to take questions.

Before that, the two journalists made a joint appearance with Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Haniyeh, Centanni and Wiig sat in a circle of chairs at the Beach Hotel. Wiig was also accompanied by his wife.

The day had begun with promises by senior Palestinian officials that the two would be released in coming hours.

At the same time, before the journalists’ release, a new video was released, showing Wiig and Centanni dressed in beige Arab-style robes. Wiig, of New Zealand, delivered an anti-Western speech, his face expressionless and his tone halting. The kidnappers claimed both men had converted to Islam.

The journalists had been seized in Gaza City on Aug. 14 by a previously unknown group calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades. However, senior Palestinian security officials said Sunday the name was a front for local militants, and that Palestinian authorities had known the identity of the kidnappers from the start.

Haniyeh also confirmed the kidnappers were from Gaza, squashing speculation that Al Qaeda had directed the abduction. “The kidnappers have no link to Al Qaeda or any other organization or faction,” Haniyeh said. “Al Qaeda as an organization does not exist in the Gaza Strip.”

It remained unclear whether the kidnappers had ties to Hamas or the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a violent offshoot of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement. A third group, the Popular Resistance Committees, claimed Sunday it had helped mediate the release of the journalists.

In chaotic Gaza, gunmen often change their affiliation or form splinter groups. Their agendas are often driven by personal issues, including jobs and power for their clans, rather than by ideology.

In the past two years, Palestinian militants have seized more than two dozen foreigners, usually to settle personal scores, but released them unharmed within hours. The holding of the FOX journalists had been the longest.

The August 2nd 2006 death of 28-year old Marc Lee was the first suffered in Iraq by the Navy’s elite commando force.

But this is not the first time Oregon has been threatened by the Westboro Baptist Church out of Topeka, Kansas, in fact they’re getting to be old news.

They had announced plans to attend the recent funeral and memorial service for Private First Class Thomas Tucker of Madras, Oregon, an Army soldier who was captured and then later killed in Iraq, and now the hate group led by the Reverend Fred Phelps and his wife Margie Phelps says they are coming to Hood River this Saturday.

It is reported that there will also be a second, similar group accompanying them, though we could not track down their name.

The Tucker service on July 1st was attended by thousands of Oregonians who among other things, were there to ensure that the protestors did not directly disturb the grieving family.

The antics of the Westboro congregation have led to violent scenes and confrontations at many military funerals already, and death threats keep Fred Phelps out of the public most of the time.

The group contends that soldiers are dying in Iraq and Afghanistan because America condones homosexuality.

Letters Margie Phelps sent to Salem-News.com after coverage of the Tucker funeral were just flat out amazing.

“Your posting of one of the thousands of squally stories about a dead soldier in hell was an exercise in futile worship of the dead and false hope that you can stop the wrath-march of the Lord your God. Of course you know better; that’s what you’re blabbing so much.”

Something abou this next statement tells me she didn’t like the way I referenced their group when I produced the video report on the Thomas Tucker service.

“Watching you filthy veterans and scooter sissies fill up the airwaves with your maudlin lies is an amazing study in the fact that God picks and sends you your delusions, causing you to believe lies.”

I stated in the report that Oregon was the first state to back them down from attending. The Salem-News.com report of their plan to attend the Tucker memorial service preceded the Deschutes County Commissioners announcement that fences would be arranged in a way that kept the protestors in an assigned area far from the family.

Now an unnamed group of counter-protestors say they have an even better idea; that is to form a human wall with hundreds of people around the hard right wing hate group and drown them out.

They aren’t suggesting anything illegal or anything that would impede on the group’s rights, they just want to vastly outnumber them they say, and drown out the hate.

American civil rights allow protestors to say what they want, when they want, and these people clearly have a right to travel about and stage demonstrations. But the people planning the counter demonstration say their message will be heard too, and they regret the fact that their attendance this Saturday has to be focused on the hate group from Kansas.

The biggest obstacle the Westboro Baptist Church may face is the fact that Oregon residents by and large, appear to be on the same page when it comes to having a sincere respect for veterans.

They seem to grasp the fact that simple respect and courtesy of another human being, particularly one who has died, is not accepting or rejecting a national policy. Oregon people seem to understand that, and we have as a state already lost more than our share of people in the wars that have erupted under the presidency of George W. Bush.

I admit that I have been looking for an opportunity to publish some of Margie Phelps’ quotes and let people know what is going on in this country. The idea of protesting military funerals sits poorly with every person in Oregon that I have spoken to. I’m sure there are some who support the behavior, but they haven’t crossed my path.

Organizers of the counter protest are circulating an e-mail message that will guide people who plan to make it to Hood River this Saturday.

“Please, we need as many people as possible to dress in the ’ol red, white and blue and bring American flags. We would like to line the 2nd street over pass, the road to the Expo Center and completely surround the protesters who will be confined to Lot 6 at the Port. Lot 6 is directly west of the Luhr Jensen Plant.”

Members of the Oregon Veteran’s Motorcycle Association have been escorting the remains of soldiers in Oregon and Washington consistently since the first Gulf War. They will be on hand along with members of the Patriot Guard, A.B.A.T.E. and several other motorcycle clubs and organizations that will attend the service and pay tribute.

I did have a recent conversation about the Topeka, Kansas group with a neighbor who attends a Baptist Church in Salem with her family. She says the name association with the Westboro Baptist Church and their Websites, godhatesfags.com and godhatesamerica.com, upsets and dismays most if not all Baptists, and they want people to clearly distinguish this group from Baptist congregations across America that have not the slightest connection to any hate groups.

The mid-morning explosion ripped through a two-story shopping pavilion at the Cherkizovsky market in northeastern Moscow.

It set the building alight and sent panicked traders fleeing out onto the street.

Nuri Magomedov witnessed the blast. He told RFE/RL’s Russian Service it occurred at a time when the market was crowded with shoppers and vendors.

“I felt the blast wave instantly and saw everything go up in the air,” Magomedov said. “I rushed to see if there was anybody I knew at the site. When I got there I saw dead bodies. There were four dead bodies. There were two children. And there was a strong smell of gunpowder.”

Blast ‘Intentional’

Early reports suggested the explosion may have been the result of an accidental malfunction in a gas container. Such containers are typically used for cooking and heating in marketplaces.
“There is no concrete evidence indicating that there was a terrorist act.” — Moscow chief prosecutor

But Moscow Deputy Mayor Vladimir Resin later told journalists the blast appeared to have been intentional, saying it was the result of an improvised explosive device.

“Investigators, prosecutors, police and FSB [security service] personnel are working now to establish the cause of the explosion,” Resin said.

Powerful Impact

Investigators said the impact of the explosion was equivalent to between 1 and 1 1/2 kilograms of TNT. It destroyed about 200 square meters of stalls, and badly damaged the pavilion roof.

In all, 35 people were hospitalized with injuries following the blast. Six are in a criticial condition.

The identities of the people killed in the explosion remain unknown.

A correspondent with RFE/RL’s Russian Service reported many of the victims were Chinese and Vietnamese nationals. Eight were reported to have been killed at the site of the blast; two others died in hospital.

Terror Unlikely

The explosion immediately sparked fears of a terrorist attack. The Russian capital has been the target of a number of bombings orchestrated by Chechen militants.

But Moscow chief prosecutor Yury Syomin said investigators believed warring criminal gangs were responsible for the blast.

“Most likely it was connected with a commercial dispute or a dispute between criminal groups,” Syomin said. “As for a terrorist attack as the possible cause, I don’t think it is ruled out completely, although there is no concrete evidence indicating that there was a terrorist act as it is defined by the law. But this version will also be examined.”

Past Incidents

The Cherkizovsky market saw a string of fires last year, the worst of which destroyed one of the trade pavilions and a number of kiosks.

In February this year, more than 60 traders — nearly all of whom were from Central Asia and the Caucasus — were killed when the roof of Moscow’s Baumansky market collapsed under the weight of heavy snow.