Posted on 10/15/2005 4:47:48 PM PDT by FairOpinion
THE diehard gang of Muslim extremists responsible for last week’s attack on the southern Russian city of Nalchik consisted mainly of local militants intent on creating a strict Islamic state independent of Moscow, according to security sources in the region.
The disclosure that the gunmen were not sent from the war-torn republic of Chechnya but belonged to a group from Kabardino-Balkaria, the Russian republic of which Nalchik is the capital, will be of great concern to the Kremlin.
It provides alarming evidence that far from dying down — as claimed by President Vladimir Putin — the bloody Chechen conflict is spreading.
“Most of the militants who were killed and those caught alive are local,” said an officer with the Nalchik anti-terrorism police unit. “ The ferocity of the attacks has shocked the city.”
The onslaught, which turned the town of 280,000 into a war zone, was the most daring raid by pro-Chechen Islamic militants since last year’s Beslan school siege in which 330 hostages were killed. It came less than a month before parliamentary elections in Chechnya, hailed by Putin as evidence that the region is becoming stable.
The 24 hours of gun battles in which several police stations and other security forces buildings were attacked left at least 108 dead, including more than 60 militants. Nearly 30 others were detained.
Most of the gunmen were thought to be members of Yarmuk, a homegrown fundamentalist group that the local authorities twice claimed to have destroyed.
Composed mainly of young extremists from the region’s two main ethnic groups, the Kabardins and the Balkars, Yarmuk has close ties with Shamil Basayev, Russia’s most wanted terrorist, who was behind the Beslan attack and appears to be extending his influence in an attempt to open up a new front in his war with Moscow.
Last week Russian prosecutors blamed Anzor Astemirov, a radical Yarmuk leader with ties to Basayev, for the Nalchik attacks. Local officials claimed they were launched to rescue a group of extremists surrounded by security forces. But the assault on the city appeared too well organised to be spontaneous. Observers believe it was a suicide mission with the aim of killing scores of officers and embarrassing the authorities.
Security forces were caught off guard when about 100 militants armed with AK47s, hand grenades and rocket launchers turned up in the city centre.
In near-simultaneous attacks shortly after 9am on Thursday, the militants targeted three police stations, the headquarters of the local FSB (the former KGB), the interior ministry building, the offices of the city’s prison guards, a military unit guarding the airport and a counter-terrorism centre.
“Suddenly a car pulled up outside the FSB building,” said Evgenia Sakurova, the director of a hotel opposite.
“Five or six armed men jumped out and ran towards the FSB entrance. They were carrying rucksacks. Quickly they took them off and threw them at the main doors. Explosions followed and all the windows on the ground and first floors were blown out. But the terrorists didn’t manage to break into the building and officers started shooting at them from inside.”
Two militants were killed in the gun battle. Three others ran for cover into a souvenir shop where they reportedly took three women hostage.
As battles raged across the city centre, 15 militants mounted an assault on a police station near the airport.
“Two cars packed with armed men drove up to the building,” a witness said. “One group lobbed a hand grenade into the front entrance and stormed inside. The other attacked the side entrance.
“There were a few officers chatting by their parked cars. The militants fired at them from machineguns and killed them.”
A firefight ensued as officers on the first and second floors fired back at the militants.
As another group of gunmen was beaten back by soldiers at the airport and Russian reinforcements began to pour into the city, militants raided at least two gun shops.
One police officer and three gunmen were killed at one of them. A wounded masked militant was seen crawling on the ground screaming in pain.
Putin ordered the city to be sealed off and anyone putting up resistance to be shot. However, some militants are thought to have escaped.
At the souvenir shop, it took until the early hours of Friday to end the standoff. “The shop was surrounded,” said Alexei Lavrentiev, who watched Russian special forces in gas masks storm the building.
“They fired several rockets from a grenade launcher through the window and fired from machineguns. An armoured personnel carrier smashed through a wall. Two hostages were carried out. They looked more dead than alive.”
As he stared at the bodies of two policemen and three insurgents Lavrentiev added: “The militants are all dead now but the city is in a state of shock. The question on everybody’s mind is, where and when will these terrorists strike next?”
Abramovich to run region again
Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea football club, is to serve a second term as governor of the remote far northern Russian region of Chukotka following the announcement yesterday that President Vladimir Putin has backed his candidacy.
Abramovich, whose term runs out in December, had said he did not want to stay on but is now widely expected to serve until 2011. He has invested millions of dollars in the impoverished region. The announcement comes less than three weeks after Abramovich sold his oil company to the Russian state for more than £5 billion.
Gee, is that a little light bulb shining over Putin's head?
Wait till the Iranians get through making their radioactive
gifts to be delivered by their fanatic followers.
It's going to be a lot easier to slip them into the Russian
land mass than the US.
Considering Putin's recent actions, it's hard to figure out whom to root for on this.
They make it sound like they are not involved with the Chechens and Bsayev. I wonder if they are also getting funds from the Saudis?
What is there to ignore? After the initial clash it was necessary to produce dead and captured attackers, and if there were not enough of them in either category, they had to be manufactured. The manufactured ones had to be local, due to the time constraints. Thus I would tend not to read too much in it, at least till more info [and not from FSB] is available.
But wait, aren't muslims telling us that only a fraction of those of their faith have hijacked islam?
Isn't islam about peace? Or was that, pieces?
Supposedly, so many muslims are in disagreement with the violence perpetrated by their brethren...why then so much silence in the wake of atrocities?
You are correct FairOpinion...we ignore this story at our peril.
We, the "Western World" tend to act, as if Putin's problems with the Islamic terrorists in the ex-Soviet Republics are his problem alone and we don't really care, and if anything, we root for the "independence" of these Republic, ignoring the potential of some of them turning into Radical Islam Republics Taliban and Iran style.
Putin, on the other hand, while focused on his problems next door, is ignoring the problems such as Iran.
Islam, indeed a religion of pieces. Opressor of women, murderer of children, beheader of Buddhists, Jews & Christians.
It is clear that Islam itself must be wiped from the face of the earth. Let the Islamics demostrate otherwise.
I think it is they who overlook this at their peril.
You are so correct!! Once the "separatist" groups adopted the Islamist tactics so aptly illustrated in last year's Beslan school siege we have to oppose it and support Putin. To do otherwise is suicide (just as the French and German opposition to our efforts in Iraq are suicide for their cultures in the long run).
"Once the "separatist" groups adopted the Islamist tactics so aptly illustrated in last year's Beslan school siege we have to oppose it and support Putin. To do otherwise is suicide (just as the French and German opposition to our efforts in Iraq are suicide for their cultures in the long run".
===
BONGO. You got it! All the rest of "us" better get it soon, before it's too late. We all know where the road of good intentions leads.
Jimmy Carter had plenty of good intentions when he didn't help the Shah of Iran suppress the radical Islam revolution and look where that lead us. A lot of people say, that was the first modern resurgence of radical Islam, a state, from where it could spread to the rest of the world, as it has.
PING
This is going to sound cold and cynical, but here goes...
Root for continuing conflict. It represents a drain on Russian resources, and Russian atrocities in the Caucasus keeps Europeans from fully allying with (and rearming) Putin. Meanwhile, every cockamammy terrorist who goes north to fight Ivan ain't going south to fight our boys.
I vote for civilization over barbarism.
Are stalinists civilized?
"The Russian muslims are revolting."
"You bet yer ass -- they stink on ice!"
Quite the busy fraction.
The Russkies and the Jihadists deserve one another, evil & evil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.