NEW YORK --US transit agencies beefed up security as a precaution Monday following the suicide bombing in Moscow's subway system, sending more police into stations and having officers conduct random inspections of rail yards. In New York, caravans of police vehicles were dispatched to transit hubs, and officers assigned to subways overnight were held in place so they overlapped with the day tour. Special units distinguished by their special black uniforms, helmets and body armor also were assigned to transit facilities. In Washington, D.C., Metro police were conducting random inspections of stations and rail yards, officials said. Atlanta's public transit system said its police department was increasing the number of officers and patrols throughout the system. Russian authorities said two women blew themselves up in Moscow on Monday in a subway jam-packed with rush-hour passengers, killing dozens. They blamed the carnage on rebels from the Caucasus region. The federal government did not immediately make any recommendations for increased security at mass transit systems, but authorities were monitoring the situation, a U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. Caucasus Islamic separatists tend to be focused on targets in the region, primarily Russia, and are not generally considered a threat to U.S. domestic interests. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who cemented his power in 1999 by launching a war to crush Chechen separatism, broke off a trip to Siberia, declaring "terrorists will be destroyed". Witnesses described panic at two central Moscow stations after the blasts, with commuters falling over each other in dense smoke and dust as they tried to escape the worst attack on the Russian capital in six years. Sixty-four others were injured, many gravely, and officials said the death toll could rise. Russia's top security official said the bombs were filled with bolts and iron rods. No group immediately claimed responsibility, but Federal Security Service's (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov said those responsible had links to the North Caucasus, a heavily Muslim region plagued by insurgency whose leaders have threatened to attack cities and energy pipelines elsewhere in Russia. "A crime that is terrible in its consequences and heinous in its manner has been committed," Putin told emergency officials in a video call. "I am confident that law enforcement bodies will spare no effort to track down and punish the criminals. Terrorists will be destroyed." The Kremlin had declared victory in its battle with Chechen separatists who fought two wars with Moscow. But violence has intensified over the past year in the neighboring republics of Dagestan and Ingushetia, where Islamist militancy overlaps with clan rivalries and criminal rings amid poverty. The chief of the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, said: "Body parts belonging to two female suicide bombers were found...and according to initial data, these persons are linked to the North Caucasus."
