Putin Condemns North Russia Attack

A suicide bomber kills at least 16 people, and wounds dozens of others in a powerful blast near a busy market in Russia's restive North Caucasus.

The attacker detonated a bomb packed with metal bars, bolts and ball bearings in a car outside the market entrance.

Authorities said a headless body was found in the wrecked car at the market.

The bombing in mostly Orthodox Christian North Ossetia is a fresh blow to the Kremlin, which is struggling to rein in a growing Islamic insurgency in the neighboring, mainly Muslim, North Caucasus provinces.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin condemned the attack.

[Vladimir Putin, Russian Prime Minister]:
"Those people who are responsible for this have no heart, no soul. They have nothing sacred. Our common task is to fight against these criminals and their crimes. And we count on that first of all Russia's Muslim community will contribute significantly to this cause."

At least 50 people were killed in a bomb blast at the same market in 1999; the year the Kremlin launched its second war to drive separatists from power in Chechnya.