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Moscow — A bomb packed with metal rods shredded three military trucks and killed 11 Russian soldiers yesterday, dragging the republic of Dagestan further toward the chaos that continues in neighbouring Chechnya.

Russian television showed bloody victims on canvas stretchers and ambulances racing past crowds of onlookers near the blast site in Makhachkala, the regional capital.

It is the largest attack in Dagestan in months, but analysts say worse lies ahead. Last night, a spokesman for Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev released a statement, saying Dagestan is a legitimate eastern front in his war against Russia.

More troubling, analysts say, is the unstable political situation in Dagestan, a border region on the Caspian Sea, home to dozens of different ethnic groups.

Magomed Magomedov, the former boss of a collective farm, has ruled the republic since Soviet times. After the collapse of the empire, his title changed from chairman of Dagestan's Supreme Soviet to chair of the State Council.

Mr. Magomedov's regime has largely prevented Dagestan from descending into the bloody conflict that embroiled Chechnya, despite raids by Chechen fighters and several bombings.

But the former Soviet leader is now 75 years old and his grip appears to be slipping.

“The time has come for change of power,” said Enver Kisriev, a Dagestani scholar and analyst who lives in Moscow. “The leader is old. He is healthy, but 75 years is too m