Russian authorities pressed hard Saturday to discover more about the two mysterious widows who brought terror to the heart of Moscow by targeting its famed subway system, AP reported. Even as they worked, three militants in the restive southern province of Dagestan opened fire on police officers in a drive-by shooting, killing one and injuring another. Dagestan _ part of Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region _ has been the epicenter of a week of violence. A 17-year-old Dagestani girl has been named as one of the two suicide bombers to hit the Moscow subway, killing 40 people and injuring 90 on Monday. Two other suicide bombers struck Wednesday near Dagestan's border with Chechnya, killing 12 people. Another explosion there Thursday killed two suspected militants. Dagestan's Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gadzhiyev told The Associated Press that Saturday's shooting occurred near the village of Chontaul, 40 miles (70 kilometers) northwest of the provincial capital of Makhachkala. Russian authorities are fighting an active Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus. On Friday, a leading Russian newspaper published a photo showing a doe-eyed teenager, partly veiled, in the embrace of a bearded man _ both grasping handguns. Russian investigators confirmed that one of the subway attackers was a 17-year-old widow from Dagestan named Dzhanet Abdurakhmanova, but would not say if the photo in the Kommersant newspaper was her. The newspaper indicated that she may have been out to avenge her husband, Umalat Magomedov, an Islamic militant killed by Russian forces in December. Kommersant published what it said was a picture of Abdurakhmanova, also known as Abdullayeva, dressed in a black Muslim headscarf and holding a Makarov pistol. Federal investigators said she attacked the Park Kultury subway station near the famous Gorky Park. 20-year-old Markha Ustarkhanova from Chechnya, the widow of a militant leader killed last October while he was preparing to assassinate Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who is backed by the Kremlin. The paper said the two bombers could have been part of a group of some 30 suicide attackers who had been trained in Chechnya. -- SPA
