Two bomb attacks appeared to have targeted Kazakh national-security facilities within the span of a week. The first, in which a suspected suicide bomber was the only casualty, struck in the western Kazakh town of Aktobe on May 17. It was thought to be the first-ever such attack in Kazakhstan. The second occurred when an explosive destroyed a car and the two men inside outside a National Security Committee detention center in the capital, Astana, on May 24.
Kazakhstan's Alarming Bombings
1
Police guard the streets around the site of a suicide attack in Aqtobe on May 17, which killed only the bomber but appeared to target a national security-forces facility.
2
A view from above street level of the leafy area around the security facility (roof at left) apparently targeted in the May 17 attack.
3
An undated photo of Rahimjan Makhatov, showing him in the company of a friend during his studies at university. Makhtatov is blamed for the suicide attack on a local branch of the National Security Committee on May 17.
4
The family home where Rahimjan Makhatov grew up in Aqtobe, in a southwestern district of Kazakhstan.
5
Family and acquaintances carry alleged suicide bomber Rahimjan Makhatov's remains, wrapped in a carpet, to prepare them for burial in his hometown of Aqtobe.
6
Locals in the garden of Makhatov's family home light a fire to cook a dish to be served at his funeral on May 20.
7
A gate of the National Security Committee detention facility outside of which an "unshelled explosive" in a car killed two unidentified men on May 24.
8
Shattered glass and blood on the ground at the scene of the explosion outside the detention facility in Astana on May 24, when two men are thought to have died.
9
A police cordon in front of a slightly damaged home across the street in Astana from the blast on May 24.