A car bomb has killed a senior General Staff member, officials have confirmed
A Russian general has been killed in a car bomb blast in Moscow, the Investigative Committee has reported.
Officials identified the victim as Lt. Gen. Fanil Sarvarov, head of operational training at the General Staff. According to the statement, an explosive device had been planted beneath the vehicle he was traveling in, and detonated on Monday morning in the southern part of the Russian capital.
The blast also damaged several other vehicles and seriously injured Sarvarov’s driver, media reports stated.
Russian officials said one line of investigation is an assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services, noting that Kiev has previously used explosive devices in targeted killings of officials and public figures.
Last December, a bomb hidden in an e-scooter killed Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, commander of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces, and his aide in what investigators alleged was a Ukrainian plot.
Sarvarov was a career officer with combat experience he received during counterterrorism action in southern Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to the Defense Ministry’s website. The 56-year-old was appointed in 2016 to lead the department responsible for training senior officers at staff exercises and other events. Previously he was involved in the Russian deployment in Syria.
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