The Boston Marathon bombings and Chechnya's long history of terrorism

The prime suspects reportedly hail from the restive region, where insurgents have fought a long-running war against the Russian state

A memorial to the victims killed in the Beslan school tragedy 2004.
(Image credit: Wikimedia Commons/aaron bird)

After a dramatic night that saw law enforcement officials engage in a running battle with two terrorism suspects in the suburbs of Boston, reports emerged this morning that the suspects — identified as brothers Dzhokdar Tsarnaev and Tarmerlan Tsarnaev — originally hailed from Chechnya, a restive region in southern Russia that has a long history of using terrorist tactics in its war against the Russian state.

Of course, we still know very little of the Tsarnaev brothers' personal histories, motivations, or potential ties to terror groups. But we do know a lot about the part of the world they come from.

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Ryu Spaeth

Ryu Spaeth is deputy editor at TheWeek.com. Follow him on Twitter.