Qaeda-linked group claims Russia metro bombing

Dubai - The US monitor SITE Intelligence Group said on Tuesday that a group suspected of links to al-Qaeda had claimed responsibility for this month's metro bombing in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg.

Alleged suicide bomber Akbarjon Djalilov, a Russian national born in Kyrgyzstan, killed 15 people and wounded around two dozen in the April 3 blast that ripped through an underground train.

The Imam Shamil Battalion said the group had carried out the attack under the orders of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, SITE said.

It said the bombing had to serve as a message to Russia and countries engaged in war with Muslims that the "price" of that war was "expensive", according to SITE.

Russia has been on edge since the alleged suicide bombing in Saint Petersburg.

It is fighting a lingering Islamist insurgency in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus, a region that has provided a steady stream of fighters for extremist groups battling in Iraq and Syria.