MOSCOW. Jan 20 (Interfax) - A powerful explosive device has been made safe in a Kabardino-Balkaria village outside the house of a local healer killed nearly a month ago, a source in law enforcement agencies told Interfax.
During an additional inspection of the courtyard of the local woman shot dead on December 24, 2013, special forces officers found a suspicious object buried in the ground in the village of Psykhurei in Kabardino-Balkaria's Baksan district on Saturday night, he said. The find was examined on Sunday afternoon by bomb disposal experts who established that it was an improvised explosive device (IED). The IED was neutralized.
Further inspection revealed that the bomb consisted of a plastic bucket containing a mixture of aluminum powder and ammonia nitrate and filled with shrapnel in the form of nails and ball bearings. The device was fitted with a detonator and timer (a converted electronic wrist watch). The power was equivalent to ten kilograms of TNT.
The IED was found in the courtyard of the house whose owner, a folk healer, was killed in late 2013.
On December 24 two men entered the woman's house, shot her and fled in a car, a representative from the Russian Investigative Committee's investigative directorate for Kabardino-Balkaria told Interfax earlier.