17-year-old blew herself up as revenge for her husband's death

Teenage 'black widow' is Moscow suicide bomber

17-year-old blew herself up as revenge for her husband's death

Investigators believed that Dzhennet Abdurakh-manova blew herself up at Park Kultury station in revenge for the killing of her husband.

Russia's National Counter-Terrorism Committee named the teenager as the toll from Monday's bombings rose to 40.

Dzhennet Abdurakhmanova brandishes a pistol next to her husband, Umalat Magomedov. He was killed on New Year's Eve in a shoot-out with the police.

A Russian newspaper published a photograph of her in black Islamist headdress and exuding childish defiance as she brandished a pistol next to her husband, Umalat Magomedov.

He was killed on New Year's Eve in a shoot-out with police in his native Dagestan.

Magomedov (30) was the leader of a terrorist group in Dagestan linked to the Islamist movement of Doku Umarov, who has claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings.

Abdurakhmanova, also from Dagestan, is said to have become acquainted with Magomedov as a 16-year-old over the internet. He took her as his wife soon afterwards, although it is unclear whether they married formally.

Magomedov died when traffic police flagged down a Lada car carrying him and three other militants through the town of Khasavyurt, Dagestan.

Police said that the group began shooting at the checkpoint and were killed when officers returned fire.

About Black Widows

Chechen terrorist groups have regularly recruited women to act as suicide bombers the Black Widows.

These women are willing, often eager, to become martyrs, often driven by a desire for revenge on Russia after witnessing the deaths of children, husbands or other relatives in the two Chechen wars of the '90s.
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The principle of "blood revenge" is extremely strong among ethnic groups in the North Caucasus and surviving family members often see it as a duty to avenge the killing of relatives.

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