**Moscow is preparing to hold funerals for most of the 39 people killed by Monday’s double suicide bombings on the city’s Metro system.**Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov has said his group was behind the attacks.
In a video message posted on a Chechen rebel website, he said he had personally ordered the operation.
He said they were carried out to avenge the killings of “poor Chechens” by Russian security forces in February and warned Russia to prepare for more.
Russian investigators have said they believe two female suicide bombers were linked to militants in the North Caucasus.
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has called on the security forces to “scrape from the sewers” those responsible.
In a separate development, at least 12 people, including a top local police official, were killed by two suicide bombings in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan on Wednesday.
So far no-one has claimed responsibility for the Dagestan blasts.
Two of the victims of the Moscow attacks were buried outside the city on Wednesday, but the majority of the funerals are taking on Thursday.
Chilling message
It was not possible to confirm independently that the man in the video - posted on a rebel website - was Doku Umarov.
He said the Moscow attacks were an act of revenge for the killings of poor Chechen and Ingush civilians by the Russian security forces near the town of Arshty on 11 February.
He said the civilians were “massacred by Russian occupiers” as they were gathering wild garlic to feed their families.
The rebel, who styles himself as the Emir of the Caucasus Emirate, said attacks on Russian soil would continue.
“The war will come to your street… and you will feel it on your own skins,” he warned Russian citizens in the video, which he said was recorded on Monday - just hours after the Metro attacks.
Earlier on Wednesday, Doku Umarov’s spokesman had told Reuters that his militant group “did not carry out the attack in Moscow, and we don’t know who did it”.This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.