The Captain has this:
The man who proudly proclaimed his responsibility for an atrocity that saw hundreds of Russian children murdered assumed room temperature earlier today. Chechen "warlord" (terrorist) Shamil Besayev died in a battle between his forces and the Russians in nearby Ingushetia:
FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev said on Monday that Basayev, who claimed responsibility for the 2004 Beslan school attack in which 331 people, half of them children, were killed, was planning an attack to coincide with Russia hosting the G8 summit of world leaders this weekend.CNN's Matthew Chance said the killing was a massive victory for the security services and a huge blow for the rebel leadership.
Basayev, together with other Chechen fighters, was killed in Ingushetia, a region neighboring Chechnya, where rebels are battling for independence.
The CNN report includes a pretty good review of Basayev's career as a terrorist. He also claimed responsibility for a seizure of a Moscow theater with hundreds of hostages that wound up being caught on videotape and rebroadcast later as a gripping documentary. In that attack, a number of Chechen terrorists strapped explosives onto themselves, including some women. The Russians pumped a powerful anaesthetic into the auditorium, incapacitating everyone, but did not apply the antidote quickly enough. Over a hundred hostages, along with all of the terrorists, perished.
But, as a few of my commenters have pointed out, these guys are nothing to worry about. Just a small band of rag tag fanatics. They pose no real danger. *sarcasm off*Good grief.
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