Yeltsin Vows To Fight Back

Russian President Boris Yeltsin is promising a "merciless fight" Saturday against those responsible for Friday's deadly bombing in southern Russia.

The bomb ripped through an outdoor market place killing 53 people. Yesterday authorities put the death toll at 62.

Police say many of the victims had been torn apart by the blast and some apparently were counted twice.

One news agency says there's been a claim of responsibility for the bomb.

The group apparently didn't identify itself, but an official says the message of its call suggested that the motive behind the blast was "religious fanaticism."

Local television, meanwhile, is showing composite drawings of a man and woman suspected of carrying out the attack.

The bomb exploded in downtown Vladikavkaz, the regional capital of North Ossetia, which borders the breakaway region of Chechnya. The blast raked the busy market, shattering stalls and vehicles.

"The place looks like a meat grinder," said local journalist Olga Vyslova, reached by phone from Moscow, adding that the blast scene was littered with severed body parts.

Local officers estimated the bomb had a blast equivalent to eight pounds of TNT.

The region has been hit by a wave of violence and lawlessness in recent years because of political and ethnic unrest and crime. In neighboring Chechnya, which claimed independence from Russia after a 1994-96 war, armed bands control several parts of the region.

Local people, many of them crying and shaking with grief, searched through the debris for survivors or helped ferry the injured to the hospital in ambulances and cars. Dozens of police officers and soldiers joined in the search.

"There are many killed and injured. The situation is very confused," a police officer reached by phone said before hanging up abruptly.

The bomb exploded near a row of stalls selling potatoes and many of the dead and injured appeared to be pensioners and poor workers, witnesses said. Blood covered surrounding walls.

Medical and emergency rescue teams from around the region were sent to the city to assist overwhelmed local hospitals cope with the crisis.

A EURO 2000 soccer match is scheduled to be held in Vladikavkaz next week between Russia and the tiny country of Andorra. The Andorra soccer federation earlier this month expressed concern about their team's safety in Vladikavkaz because of its proximity to Chechnya.

Stepashin, the Russian interior minister, had said Wednesday that the Andorra concerns were unjustified. He told reporters that he "guarantees absolute security for the match."

Police said they doubted the bombing had any connection to the soccer match, but all possibilities were being investigated.