Russian security services defused two explosive devices on a gas pipeline Monday after an incident that disrupted supplies to the Caucasus region, officials said.
Sappers defused two anti-tank grenades on the pipeline in Russia's restive southern region of Ingushetia, a spokesman for the local interior ministry told the Interfax news agency.
The pipeline runs from Mozdok in the Russian region of North Ossetia to the Georgian capital Tbilisi. The discovery of the devices forced the authorities to close the pipeline, halting supplies of Russian gas to Armenia.
"As of 10:15 am (0715 GMT) the demining of the gas pipeline and the surrounding area has been completed," Ingushetia Prime Minister Alexei Vorobyov told Interfax.
There was no immediate confirmation of who planted the devices or when supplies along the pipeline would resume.
Residents in Ingushetia and North Ossetia also had gas supplies interrupted as a result of the security alert, Russia's Channel One television reported.
The explosive devices were connected to canisters of petrol and a detonator and placed under two gas pipes in the Malgobeksky district of Ingushetia, the interior ministry spokesman told Interfax.
Explosions on the gas pipeline in January 2006 cut off supplies to Georgia and Armenia.
Russia's Caucasus region is facing an armed rebellion whose roots go back to the wars fought in neighboring Chechnya in the past decade.