Car bomb blast at southern Russian market kills 2

VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia -- A car bomb exploded Tuesday night in a parking lot near the central market in Vladikavkaz, a southern Russian city near the war-ravaged Chechen Republic. At least two people were killed, and several wounded.\nHeavy smoke filled the area as firefighters battled flames. The blast shattered glass in buildings near the lot. The central market and others in the city have been hit by a series of bombings over the past five years.\nVladikavkaz is the capital of the province of North Ossetia, to the west of Chechnya where rebels and Russian forces have been fighting since 1999. The fighting in Chechnya occasionally spills into neighboring areas, which also has been the site of shootings and bombings connected either to the war or to local crime groups.\nOfficials gave varying accounts of how many were killed and injured.\nA regional security official, Uruzmag Ogoyev, said two people died and 10 were hurt. Regional interior ministry's spokesman Ismel Shaov said one civilian and one soldier were killed and six people were hospitalized with injuries.\nThe Interfax news agency cited an unidentified Interior Ministry official as saying two people were killed and eight injured -- four Interior Ministry police cadets and four civilians. The official did not confirm the report of the soldier's death.\nEarlier, a Federal Security Service spokesman in Moscow said a woman pedestrian was killed and several soldiers who were passing by in a truck were hurt.\nA March 1999 bombing in Vladikavkaz's central market killed 55 people and wounded 168. Four men were convicted and given sentences up to life in prison for the bombing. The same group was also implicated in a May 1999 bombing at a military outpost killing four and injuring 17, a June 1999 blast in Vladikavkaz injuring 17 and the abduction of three Russian soldiers.\nTwo other men were convicted last year of a 2001 bombing at the Vladikavkaz central market that killed six people. Prosecutors said they had received $1,000 each from Chechen rebels to set off the blast. In 2002, seven people died in the bombing of a Vladikavkaz flower market crowded with people buying bouquets to put on graves for Palm Sunday.