By DPA
Moscow : At least six people were killed and several injured in separate attacks in the Russian Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, Russian media reported.
A car bomb Friday killed three people in front of the Cultural Centre of Nasran, the capital city of Ingushetia, while three members of an ethnic Russia family were killed in the city of Karabulak.
The Interfax news agency said the security forces had been ordered to the Cultural Centre in Nasran after reports of a suspicious vehicle in the area. The vehicle exploded killing three occupants of a police car.
The Itar-Tass news agency however cited sources from the Russian Interior Ministry saying that the vehicles had collided, leading to suspicions that a gas container may have exploded in one of the vehicles.
There have been no independent reports on the incident from the region.
In the Karabulak incident, unidentified gunmen shot a man and his two sons early Friday, the second attack of its type in several weeks. Justice officials said the perpetrators may be the same people who in the same area in mid-July shot dead a teacher of Russian origin and two children.
A spokeswoman for the Russia State Prosecutors Office said the goal of the attackers was to destabilize the region.
Experts have not excluded the possibility that political forces are attempting to trigger a crisis in the Northern Caucasus before the presidential elections in the Russia Federation in March 2008.
According to Moscow political scientist Pavel Felgenhauer, such a situation could profit a candidate from the security apparatus or force President Vladimir Putin to remain in office.