Washington – The State Department is warning Americans of a terrorist threat to Western targets in Azerbaijan and urging U.S. citizens to be vigilant in the oil-rich former Soviet republic on the Caspian Sea.

In a security alert issued Saturday, the U.S. Embassy in Baku said there was a “potential for attacks in Azerbaijan, including against American interests.” It said the warning was “based on terrorist threat information.” It added that U.S. citizens in Azerbaijan “should remain vigilant, particularly in public places associated with the Western community.”

The alert did not elaborate on the nature of the threat or who might be behind it.

Foreigners target of Moscow attack

Moscow – The suicide bomber who killed 35 people at Moscow’s busiest airport was deliberately targeting foreigners, investigators said Saturday, which would mark an ominous new tactic by separatist militants in southern Russia if he was recruited by an Islamist terror cell.

Federal investigators know the identity of the bomber, a 20-year-old native of the volatile Caucausus region, where Islamist insurgents have been battling for years for a breakaway state.

But the country’s top investigative body stopped short of naming him, fearing that it would compromise ongoing attempts to identify and arrest the masterminds of the Domodedovo Airport attack on Jan. 24. The blast also wounded 180 people.

There has been no claim of responsibility, but security analysts suspect Islamist separatists of organizing the bombing because of its magnitude and method.

“It was no accident that the terrorist act was carried out in the international arrivals hall,” federal investigators said in a statement. “The terrorist act was aimed first and foremost at foreign citizens.”

The victims were mainly Russians, but also included one person each from Britain, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Since the blast at Domodedovo Airport, a half-dozen transport and police officials have been fired.