Islamic Radicals cheer "God is great" as they
kill hostages in Moscow- Russians Immobilize them. Stand off over
The standoff between Russian authorities and Chechen rebels who took hostage around 700
people at a theater not far from the Kremlin came to a bloody end when Russian
anti-terrorist troops used an immobilizing gas to take control of the building.
"We mourn the deaths of 67 hostages," Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev
told reporters. Thirty-seven terrorists died.
Besides those Chechens killed, several others were taken into custody and some escaped
into nearby buildings and were still being sought, Vasilyev said in a news conference
several hours after the rescue.
Vasilyev acknowledged the use of a disabling gas in the rescue effort. "I am
authorized to say we used the special means ... which allowed us to neutralize the
terrorists who were holding their fingers on the triggers of the bombs," he said.
Before the operation, he said, more than 1,000 lives were at risk, counting those of the
hostages, their captors and security forces. Nine of the hostages died while being treated
at hospitals, Vasilyev said, denying reports that 11 hostages succumbed to the effects of
the gas. They had been weakened, he said, "because of over stress; they were hungry;
they were not given timely medical assistance while they were held hostage."
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced that none of the more than 70 foreign hostages, a
few of them Americans, had been killed in the operation, Itar-Tass news agency reported.
The Ministry notified embassies that all the foreigners were being treated in local
hospitals.
"We are trying to find more bandits," he said according to a translation
provided by CNN. "Some terrorists could escape and now we are combing the
territory." "Some terrorists have hidden themselves in the neighboring
houses," he continued. "The situation is very complicated. It is manageable. It
is under control."
Television cameras allowed into the theater building shortly after the hostages had been
removed showed several bodies as well as explosive devices.
Rebel leader Movsar Barayev, 23, was among the Chechens killed, Vasilyev told reporters
earlier.
BBC reporter Andrey Medvedev, reporting from inside the theater after the hostages had
been evacuated, said empty alcohol bottles and syringes littered the interior while
Barayev's body was left clearly in view, a bottle of brandy in his hand.
The explosives that had been rigged in several places had been fortified with ball
bearings and nails. In one location, explosives appeared to be intended to bring down the
ceiling but none detonated.
The dead Chechen female hostage takers, clad in black and wearing headscarves, were shown
in TV footage seated in the empty theater. They looked as if they had been in a deep
sleep, with their motionless bodies either flung back in their own seats or slumped over
the seats in the rows in front of them.
Before the rescue, Vasilyev had addressed the Chechens publicly, promising their lives
would be spared if they surrendered. Instead they sent word the hostages would begin being
killed after dawn Saturday, a deadline the special forces operation preceded by little
more than an hour.
When two hostages were killed and the Chechens fired on some hostages running to escape,
the Russian personnel were forced to resort to an operational plan that included use of
the gas and forced entry, authorities said. Otherwise, authorities said, they would have
continued to pursue negotiations, including the efforts of a special envoy who had already
been sent to Chechnya.
After the rescue operation, bomb-disposal specialists were dispatched to the theater to
disable the explosives.
Director of the Russian Federal Security Service Nikolay Patrushev declared after a
meeting with President Putin that there were no casualties among security and Interior
servicemen who took part in the hostage-release operation, the BBC reported.
Patrushev said that one serviceman was only slightly wounded. For his part, Interior
Minister Boris Gryzlov said that police cordons, who were supported by interior forces,
fulfilled their task successfully.
Authorities also detained alleged accomplices of the Chechen captors who had conspired
help them beyond the ring of police cordons around the theater, he said.
"The hostages have left their personal belongings there, and I want to ensure that
their things have been well-guarded and will be returned after all the necessary checks
are carried out," he said.
Gryzlov thanked the special forces and servicemen of the Interior troops for what he said
was a "well coordinated and difficult operation."
Sergei Ignatchenko, a spokesman for the security headquarters handling the hostage crisis
told reporters the building was taken over after the terrorists started to shoot hostages.
"They shot to death two men and wounded two more, a man and a woman,"
Ignatchenko said. The official added that some of the hostages attempted to escape the
building after the killings, prompting special troops to "come to their rescue."
The raid was preceded by prolonged explosions and gunfire inside the building.
NTV showed footage depicting two female hostages running from the theater for shelter at
one point and eventually being whisked away by special troops.
More than 50 ambulances rushed to the scene to evacuate the wounded as buses drove away
the unhurt survivors.
According to NTV, most of the survivors fainted after coming out of the theater as shock
and exhaustion took their toll. Witnesses said they appeared to be experiencing the
effects of the gas.
In previous days, many of the hostages' relatives had pleaded with the authorities to
start negotiations with the terrorists and not to force the situation.
They asked President Putin to refrain from authorizing a storming of the building and to
comply with the terrorists' requirements in order to save the hostages' lives.
Earlier negotiations stalled as the terrorists refused to make any substantial concessions
and continued demanding that the war in Chechnya be ended.
Before the standoff ended, the terrorists had released 19 people, including eight
children. But they warned that they would start executing the hostages if the Kremlin
continued to ignore their demand.
Vasilyev also mentioned that President Vladimir Putin had finally decided overnight to
appoint his envoy in southern Russia Viktor Kazantsev as his negotiator in the talks with
the captors.
Kazanstev flew out on a Moscow-bound plane from the southern Russian city Rostov-on-Don
Saturday morning, but the events in the theater superceded any negotiations, he said.
The Russians sighed a breath of relief as the hostage crisis was resolved, but officials
warned against a potential outbreak of inter-ethnic hatred against Chechens living across
the country.
Russian police will enforce measures nationwide to "prevent spread of anti-Chechen
sentiments, inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflicts," Interior Minister Boris
Gryzlov was quoted.
Russia's Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov immediately briefed Putin on the
investigation and pledged that investigators would look for the terrorists' accomplices
"in Moscow, Chechnya and abroad."
Gryzlov also reported the capture of about 30 accomplices who abetted the terrorists in
Moscow.
Investigators said they still have to find out where the group had stashed weapons,
explosives and camouflage uniforms before launching Wednesday's raid, when and how they
entered Moscow and on what grounds they obtained temporary residence permits
The siege in a Moscow theatre took a further dramatic turn when the Arab Al
Jazeera television network broadcast video tapes of people it claimed were
involved in the hostage taking drama in the Russian capital. The broadcast showed them in
front of banners in Arabic referring to Moscow and saying "God is great" as they
proclaimed their willingness to die. The Al Jazeera station has frequently been used by
the al-Qaeda network to make statements about its activities.
The broadcast appeared to support a claim by Russian President Vladimir Putin that the
Chechens behind the theatre siege were linked to international terrorism. As details
emerged of the first casualties among the 700 people held captive, Mr Putin spoke in
televised statements from his Kremlin office about "a monstrous manifestation of
terrorism" and said it had been planned by "foreign terrorist
centres".
Andrew Jack finds a strange sense of suspended animation outside the Moscow theatre where
up to 700 people are being held hostage. Separately, Russian officials indicated during
the day that the Chechens had made telephone calls to to the United Arab Emirates and
Turkey as well as Moscow and Chechnya.
Mr Putin, whose own political ascension was closely linked to his decision to launch
military action in Chechnya three years ago, cancelled his forthcoming foreign trips to
Germany, Portugal and Mexico so he could take charge of the situation
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