MOSCOW (AP) -- MOSCOW (AP)
Terrorist groups tried twice this year to conduct reconnaissance at Russian nuclear arms storage sites but were thwarted from taking any action, a senior general said Thursday.
Col. Gen. Igor Volynkin, head of the department that oversees nuclear security in the Russian military, said the first attempt to stake out at a military storage site was eight months ago and the second was about six months ago.
Volynkin, in remarks shown on Russian ORT television, did not say where the incidents took place or name the terrorist groups.
He said both times the efforts were ``nipped in the bud'' and insisted that no one entered the territory of the military facilities. He did not say whether anyone had been arrested or charged.
He said that after the reconnaissance attempts, Russia increased security at its munitions sites, then after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States still more personnel and weaponry were brought to the facilities.
He insisted the storage facilities could withstand an air attack such as the ones that hit New York and Washington, but warned that a ground attack on the nuclear sites was possible.
Russia has seen several terror attacks in recent years, including apartment house bombings in 1999 that killed 300 people and were blamed on terrorists in breakaway Chechnya.
