Bomb blast in southern Russia

Suicide blasts in southern Russia kill 9.

Two suicide bombers including one impersonating a police officer killed at least nine people and injured 18 others in the southern Russian province of Dagestan on Wednesday, officials said.

The blasts in the North Caucasus region came two days after a twin suicide bombing tore through the Moscow subway, killing 39 and wounding scores.

In Wednesday's attacks, in the town of Kizlyar near Dagestan's border with Chechnya, a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a car when pulled over by traffic police, regional Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said.

As investigators and residents gathered at the scene of the blast, a second bomber wearing a police uniform approached and set off explosives, killing the town's police chief among others, said Vyacheslav Gadzhiyev, another ministry spokesman.

Rebels from the North Caucasus, which includes Dagestan and Chechnya, were blamed for masterminding the Moscow attack, but no claims of responsibility have been made.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Russians on Tuesday that he is certain the masterminds of the subway attacks would be found.

Monday's subway bombings, carried out by two women, were the first terrorist attacks in Moscow in six years. They have shaken a city that has been insulated from the violence still raging in the restive southern corner of the country.