Suicide bombings and attacks on targets in Russia have been stepped up since 2002. Culminating in the Belsan school siege. Below are details of some of the attacks attributed to Chechen rebels over the past two years.

The Moscow Theatre siege in 2002 claimed more than 100 lives

October 2002: Chechen rebels sieze a Moscow theatre, taking hundreds of people hostage. The Russian apecial forces storm the building but at least 129 are killed in the operation.

December 2002: A suicide truck-bomb destroys the headquarters of Chechnya's Moscow-backed government in Grozny, killing 80 people.

May 2003: Around 60 people are killed in a truck-bomb attack at the Moscow-backed government compound in Znamenskoye in northern Chechnya.

June 2003: A female suicide attacker detonates a bomb near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to a military airfield in Mozdok, a major staging point for Russian troops in Chechnya. At least 16 people are killed in the attack.

August 2003: A truck-bomb explodes at a military hospital in Mozdok, killing 50 people.

Chechnya's pro-Moscow president Akhmat Kadyrov is killed in a blast in Grozny

December 2003: A female suicide bomber detonates an explosion which kills at least six people in central Moscow.

February 2004: 39 people are killed and around 100 injured in a suicide bombing on Moscow's metro during the morning rush hour.

May 2004: Chechnya's pro-Moscow president Akhmat Kadyrov is killed. A bomb goes off in a packed stadium in Grozny where a ceremony to mark victory in the World War II was underway.

June 2004: Much of Ingushetia, a republic within the Russian Federation, comes under co-ordinated attack by Chechen rebels. At least 46 people are killed, amongst them several high-ranking Ingush officials

24 August 2004: Two planes brought down by hijackers killing all 89 on board. Both crashed within minutes of each other after flying out of the same Moscow airport. Russian investigators have confirmed that explosions caused the planes to go down.