Chechen Terrorists Attack Chechen Parliament

This video shows the aftermath of a terror attack on the Chechen Parliament.



Chechen terrorists chanting "Allahu Ackbar" attacked the Chechen Parliament earlier today, causing at least six deaths and 10 injuries. Russian authorities say that all the attackers were killed.

The attack included at least one suicide bomber and several others carrying automatic weapons:

At least one attacker appears to have set off a suicide bomb just outside the building before the others rushed inside, exchanging fire with security guards.

They could be heard shouting "Allahu Akbar" - Arabic for "God is great" - as they ran inside, according to Chechen security sources.

A spokesman for the Chechen parliament, Zelim Yakhikhanov, said deputies had feared they would be taken hostage when they heard shooting outside the building.

"We managed to take refuge on the third floor where we stayed until the end of the operation," he told AFP news agency.

Mr Kadyrov said the operation to suppress the attack took between 15 and 20 minutes. The official killed was reportedly the parliamentary bursar.

The terrorists apparently followed the car of a high ranking parliamentarian into Grozny before carrying out the attack. Two terrorists were apparently cornered by special forces, but blew themselves up rather than be captured by forces loyal to Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov.

Chechnya remains a hotbed for terrorism, with Russian suppression mixing with Islamic ideologies and longstanding animosities to create favorable conditions for ongoing violence.

Suicide Bombers Target Moscow Subway

A pair of suicide bombers struck the Moscow subways during the height of the morning rush hour, killing dozens and wounding more than 100 others. The attacks included one of the stations closest to the headquarters for the former KGB and current home to the state intel services.

Female suicide bombers set off huge explosions in two subway stations in central Moscow during the Monday morning rush hour, Russian officials said, killing more than three dozen people and raising fears that the Muslim insurgency in southern Russia was once again being brought to the country’s heart. The first attack occurred as commuters were exiting a packed train at a station near the headquarters of the F.S.B., the successor to the Soviet-era K.G.B. Officials said they suspected that the attack there was intended as a message to the security services, which have helped lead the crackdown on Islamic extremism in Chechnya and other parts of the Caucasus region in southern Russia.

The two explosions spread panic throughout the capital as people searched for missing relatives and friends, and the authorities tried to determine whether more attacks were planned. The subway system is one of the world’s most extensive and well-managed, and it serves as a vital artery for Moscow’s commuters, carrying as many as 10 million people a day.

“The terrorist acts were carried out by two female terrorist bombers,” said Moscow’s mayor, Yuri M. Luzhkov. “They happened at a time when there would be the maximum number of victims.”

Mr. Luzhkov said 23 people were killed in the first explosion, at the Lubyanka station, and 12 people were killed 40 minutes later at the Park Kultury station. At least two others died later. More than 100 people were injured.

The terrorists were likely Chechen sympathizers, given that two females were suspected as being the bombers and Chechen terrorist groups tend to use women to carry out their attacks, unlike other Islamic terror groups that generally use men. The use of a coordinated attack in this case is interesting given that there is an alignment of interests between the Chechen terrorists and al Qaeda and that al Qaeda terrorists were known to be trained and operated in Chechnya and have links to the various Chechen terrorist groups. Sharing methods and tactics should be expected, which makes defending against those terror attacks all the more difficult.

There is also a suggestion that the Chechen Black Widows being involved in the attack. The Black Widows are believed to be the widows of men who were killed in the fight with Russia and while some argue that this is a politically motivated terrorist group, the religious undertones permeate the Chechen conflict, where the Chechens are largely Sunni Muslims who want a Muslim homeland for themselves.

Here in the NYC metro area, security has been beefed up, but it's a paltry show of force against a determined foe that is more than willing to use our own freedom of travel against us to maximize the carnage. The NYPD has added police patrols to the subways and there's a show of force at major subway stations, but that still leaves far too much of the system exposed given that there 240 stations in the system and hundreds of subway trains and thousands of cars operating at any one time.

UPDATE:
The black widows are a spinoff from Basayev's Islamic terror outfit, which was responsible for multiple terror attacks in Russia, including the Beslan school massacre. They are an Islamic terror group, and one of the other monikers for the black widows is that they are known as Shahidka (Martyrs) and others report their name as the Brides of Allah, making the reference to Islamic terrorism all the more explicit.

Beslan Massacre Five Years Later

There are times when evil is so omnipresent that it hits you in the gut the moment you see it. 9/11 was one such time. Another was the Beslan school massacre, where 334* people were murdered by Chechen Islamist terrorists. They captured an entire school in Beslan on its opening day in 2004, holding more than 1,200 people against their will in the process. A three-day standoff ensued, and on the third day, a running gun battle began between Russian forces and the terrorists.

The terrorists had brought many of the children and adults accompanying them on their first day of school into the gymnasium, which was rigged with explosives. The terrorists themselves were rigged with explosives and suicide vests.

The terrorists then detonated the explosives in the gym, and within moments, hundreds of people were dead. 187 children were murdered by the group, led by unrepentant terrorist, the Butcher of Beslan, Shamil Basayev.

He would meet his end in July 2006, when Russian forces killed him in a raid. Basayev would have been eliminated much sooner had ABC News provided the Russians with details of their earlier meeting with the terrorist.

Others remembering the massacre include Michelle Malkin.

*wiki says that 334 people were murdered in the Beslan School #1 massacre, although the numbers vary according to sources. At least 10 Russian special forces were killed in the operation as well. Nearly 800 people were injured in the attack. It was one of the largest terrorist attacks in history, and the scope of the attacks showed that terrorists will continue targeting anyone and everyone in their paths - and that no where is safe.

Chechen Suicide Bombers Kill At Least 20 In Russia

The Russians are reporting that a massive truck bomb killed at least 20 in the Caucasus Mt. city of Nazran. The truck barreled through barricades and slammed in to the police station, exploding.

The attacker on Monday rammed the truck through the gates of the Nazran city police headquarters, in Ingushetia province, and detonated about 440 pounds of explosives as police officers were lining up for a morning check, said Svetlana Gorbakova of the regional branch of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Prosecutor General's office.

Police had fired shots at the truck, but failed to stop it. The blast triggered a raging fire that destroyed a weapons room where ammunition detonated.

It took rescue teams several hours to search for victims in the ruins. A nearby apartment building and several office buildings were also damaged, and burned-out cars littered the street. The attacker and the truck were pulverized by the blast, Gorbakova said.

At least 20 people were killed and 60 wounded, she said, though official figures on the number of wounded varied. Ruslan Koloyev, the acting head of the Emergency Ministry's branch in Ingushetia, said on Rossiya television that 92 people were injured.

Chechen rebels led by Doku Umarov may have been behind the attack and have been active in the area, nearly killing the president of Ingushetia in a terror attack in June.

Beslan Revisited

Could the Beslan massacre have been completely avoided? A new video seems to suggest that the Russian security forces contributed to the carnage.

A video that remained secret for nearly three years after the horrific Beslan hostage crisis has cast new doubt on official conclusions about what led to the deaths of 334 people, more than half of them children, during one of Russia's worst terrorist attacks.

The footage is far from definitive, but appears to lend credence to the theory that security forces bear at least some of the blame for the high death toll.

A central question about the carnage is what caused the initial explosions that were followed by a chaotic gunbattle, fire and the collapse of the roof of School No. 1's gymnasium, where more than 1,100 hostages had been held by militants demanding the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.

A final official report on the events of Sept. 1-3, 2004, has not been released. The lead parliamentary investigator has suggested homemade bombs rigged by the 32 heavily armed men and women in the gymnasium were detonated by the militants, and that was the primary reason for the high death toll.

However, victims and relatives of the dead, and at least one member of the parliamentary commission, maintain law enforcement agencies botched the rescue, using flame-throwers, grenade launchers and heavy guns that worsened the situation. Dozens of survivors insist the explosions that sparked the maelstrom came from outside the building.

Susanna Dudiyeva, who heads the Beslan Mothers' Committee and whose 13-year-old son died in the attack, accused Russia's primary security agency, the Federal Security Service or FSB, of withholding crucial evidence.

Videos shot the day of the end of the siege (and the first one may be one of the segments noted in the article):



This video shows the effects of the siege and storming of the school by security forces:

Boris Yeltsin: 1931- 2007

Former President Boris Yeltsin, who engineered the final collapse of the Soviet Union and pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, has died, a Kremlin official said Monday. He was 76.

Kremlin spokesman Alexander Smirnov confirmed Yeltsin's death, but gave no cause or further information. The Interfax news agency cited an unidentified medical source as saying he had died of heart failure.

Although Yeltsin pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, many of its citizens will remember him mostly for presiding over the country's steep decline.

He was a contradictory figure, rocketing to popularity in the Communist era on pledges to fight corruption - but proving unable, or unwilling, to prevent the looting of state industry as it moved into private hands during his nine years as Russia's first freely elected president.

He steadfastly defended freedom of the press, but was a master at manipulating the media.

He amassed as much power as possible in his office - then gave it all up in a dramatic New Year's address at the end of 1999.

Yeltsin's greatest moments came in bursts. He stood atop a tank to resist an attempted coup in August 1991, and spearheaded the peaceful end of the Soviet state on Dec. 25 of that year. Ill with heart problems, and facing possible defeat by a Communist challenger in his 1996 re-election bid, he marshaled his energy and sprinted through the final weeks of the campaign. The challenge transformed the shaky convalescent into the spry, dancing candidate.

But Yeltsin was an inconsistent reformer who never took much interest in the mundane tasks of day-to-day government and nearly always blamed Russia's myriad problems on subordinates.

Yeltsin damaged his democratic credentials by using force to solve political disputes, though he claimed his actions were necessary to keep the country together.

He sent tanks and troops in October 1993 to flush armed, hard-line supporters out of a hostile Russian parliament after they had sparked violence in the streets of Moscow. And in December 1994, Yeltsin launched a war against separatists in the southern republic of Chechnya.

Tens of thousands of people were killed in the Chechnya conflict, and a defeated and humiliated Russian army withdrew at the end of 1996. The war solved nothing - and Russian troops resumed fighting in the breakaway region in fall 1999.

Actually, the AP article gets it wrong. He didn't engineer the final collapse so much as manage its collapse in fits and starts. Yeltsin attempted to fill the shoes of Gorbochev, and did so quite unevenly.

There were moments where he shone - such as diffusing the attempt to take over the government in 1991 and again in 1993, but his refusal to deal with corruption and the heavy handed tactics utilized in Chechnya diminish his stature considerably.

The ongoing mess in Chechnya is one that the Russian government is still trying to deal with. Chechnya is a major thorn in the side of the Russian government and hundreds of thousands have died and been displaced as a result of ongoing fighting in the region. It has become a terrorist haven, some with links to al Qaeda.

Diplomacy and the Hounds of Hell, Part XXIII

The AP is reporting that Al Jazeera says that 11 Israeli soldiers were killed in Lebanon today. Buried in this 'news' report is the following:

The Israeli army declined to comment on reports about the 11 soldiers' deaths but said earlier that 15 soldiers were wounded in overnight clashes.

Thus far, the Israeli reports indicate that 2 paratroopers were killed and several others wounded, but that Hizbullah took heavy casualties, including a top Hizbullah official, Hassan A-Sader.

During IDF operations in the village of Rajmin, reserve forces killed nine Hizbullah guerrillas and wounded two.

Earlier, a Golani soldier was moderately wounded in an exchange of gunfire with the Hizbullah in Bint Jbail.

The IAF targeted Hizbullah headquarters in the city, killing 10 guerrillas. Later on, IDF troops killed another eight guerillas in the same town.

Gee, somehow that information doesn't get included in the AP report. Curious. The AP relies on al Jazeera reporting to get information about Israeli casualties, which are itself produced by Hizbullah, which has shown a penchant for exaggerating its success against Israel when in fact Hizbullah has continually lost ground, men, and materials against Israeli forces, who can strike anywhere in Lebanon.

Hizbullah continues to fire rockets, including a long range rocket that hit the Gilboa area. Others hit in the West Bank.

Israel continues to sound as though they're going to push to the Litani River, even as talk about diplomatic resolutions to this fighting continue. Russia calls on Israel to release the Palestinian Parliment speaker, who is a member of Hamas. Last time I checked, Russia had no problem hunting down and killing Chechen terrorists who killed Russians - all without due process or any other niceties. Here, they're calling on Israel to release the leadership of the terrorist group that invaded Israel, killed two Israeli soldiers, took Gilad Shalit, and started firing off kassam rockets at Israel. Yeah, that sounds like "do as I say, not as I do." That's also the opinion of quite a few countries in the UN who are trying to put together a ceasefire agreement, despite the fact that we're talking about a terrorist group that has obeyed not a single rule of war, rejects Geneva Conventions, and otherwise acts as though it is above the laws of nations.

Fuad Siniora takes to the Washington Post op-ed pages to make his case, but the facts are very clear. Lebanon refused to deal with the issue of Hizbullah's militarization of South Lebanon in preparation for the very conflict we're witnessing now. Claims that he's got 15,000 Lebanese troops to secure the border are too little, too late. Perhaps if those troops dealt with Hizbullah's presence in Northern Lebanon and Bekaa Valley then they might have a shot at securing their borders and obtaining a ceasefire from Israel. Ed Morrissey also calls Siniora on the carpet for his statements.

Israel continues operations in Gaza and against other Palestinian terrorist bases of opperations, including Jenin, where 2 Islamic Jihad members were killed.

The NYT headline notes that Israelis from both sides of the political spectrum are for continuing this fight. Well, that's easy to understand. They know that it's for their survival and to give up the fight now means that Hizbullah will continue its genocidal campaign, Iran will continue to expand Hizbullah's proxy capabilities, and Israel's existence will be further undermined each and every day. Indeed, most Israelis agree (and I do as well) that the Israeli government has not gone far enough in using Israel's military capabilities to put a stop to Hizbullah - not that they've done too much.

Bloggers to check in with for daily updates are Blue Crab Boulevard, Carl in Jerusalem, Israellycool, Dave Bender, Meryl Yourish, Euphoric Reality, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Jameel at the Muqata, Greetings from the French Hill, R'Lazer, and Live from an Israeli Bunker. Check back with them regularly for updates.

UPDATE:
France is conceding to Hizbullah and wants the Israelis to withdraw before any ceasefire occurs. This is why France's diplomacy, if you can call it that, is so dangerous. Not only does it give Hizbullah cover to regroup and rearm, but it rewards Hizbullah for attacking Israel and killing civilians at every opportunity. You cannot trust the French to do the right thing here by Israel, and Israel cannot trust the UN because of the UN's repeated failures to deal with Lebanon and UN SCR 1559.

It bears repeating the following, though I cannot find the original attribution (most recently posted here):

If Hezbollah lays down their arms, there will be peace in the mideast.

If Israel lays down their arms, there will be no more Israel.

Israel's Cabinet has approved a deeper push to clear the rockets past the Litani River. Up to 40,000 troops are potentially involved in this effort. That's fine, but they've got to do more than simply clear the rockets. The Israelis must seal the Lebanese border with Syria. The problem is that the Israelis are also going to hold off on the campaign to see if the diplomatic efforts will produce any results. Are you kidding me? There's no diplomatic resolution to this conflict that benefits Israel unless Hizbullah is disarmed and removed from Lebanon. Hizbullah will never accept those terms, and the fighting will continue. By giving any pause to the strategic goals, Israel is providing breathing space for Hizbullah to operate.

The US is urging Israel to show restraint in its campaign, but the problem is that Israel has shown too much restraint, allowing Hizbullah to slip through the cracks.

How about we try this on for size. If we want a ceasefire, put the onus on Hizbullah. Let them stop firing rockets first and see if Israel stops as well, but we know Hizbullah would never agree to those terms.

Hamas' Haniyeh thinks the future of the Palestinian Authority is in doubt. Oh really? You realize this now after your terrorist minions invaded Israel from Gaza, killed two Israeli soldiers, took a third, and began shelling Israeli cities? Did you think that through? Did you think that Israel might not like having its soldiers killed and taken and its cities attacked and would do something about it? Nope. Didn't think so. Hamas, as the head of the PA, is responsible for the mess in Gaza, and that's why Hamas has been targeted by the IDF for elimination. They started a war, and Israel is going to finish it. Hamas can still cry uncle and get out with the shirts on their backs, by releasing Gilad Shalit, but Hamas is too proud to concede that they lost. They still cling to the hope that Israel will somehow agree to a ceasefire that includes releases of Palestinian prisoners. Israel should never again go down that path. It's antithetical to Israel's long term security.

UPDATE:
CNN reports that Nasrallah supports Siniora's plan to put 15,000 Lebanese troops into South Lebanon. Of course he does. He knows that his minions will never be forced to disarm by the Lebanese government, and that everyone can make a show of the 'disarmament' because the Lebanese military will simply hand the weapons back over to Hizbullah when no one is looking.

UPDATE:
This report says that Nasrallah doesn't like the latest version of the ceasefire proposal because it gives Israel too much (like the right to exist) and that it's unfair. Awwww. Nasrallah thinks the ceasefire is unfair. Life's unfair. You picked a fight that you can't win, and hope that the UN will bail you out. It shouldn't, but Nasrallah knows that the UN doesn't particularly care for Israel no matter the situation.

Why does the world continue to think that dealing with Hizbullah as though it is an entity worthy of negotations and compromise when Hizbullah's own charter and leadership have made it abundantly apparent that Israel's destruction is their ultimate goal - with the full backing of Iran to boot. Israel doesn't need a ceasefire, it needs a green flag to finish the job and eliminate Hizbullah in South Lebanon.

UPDATE:
More Nasrallah talk. He says that Arabs should get out of Haifa, Israel. Why? Is Hizbullah planning on turning the city into a funeral pyre? Is he contemplating the mass murder of Israeli civilians? Walks like a duck. Talks like a duck. It's gonna be a duck. He's busy calling Lebanon a graveyard for the IDF. Tough talk from a guy who has been going from bunker to bunker to avoid being one of those "civilian" casualties that Hizbullah is so proud to tout and highlight for a compliant media. Nasrallah's calls are similar to those that Arab leaders made in 1948 when they said that they should get out of the way so that the Jews could be driven into the sea. History certainly appears to be repeating itself. Right down to the genocidal and fascist intent of Iran, Syria, and their proxy Hizbullah.

UPDATE:
It's been a deadly day for the IDF, as a total of 15 soldiers have been killed in four separate incidents, which actually jibes with the reporting by al Jazeera that I discounted above. No way to know whether they're talking about the same incidents though. The bulk of the casualties came as a result of Hizbullah attacking a building where a number of Israeli troops were operating from.

Nine elite IDF unit soldiers were killed, seven troops have been seriously injured, and 10 sustained light to moderate wounds after a building they were staying in collapsed as a result of a missile strike in the Lebanese village of Dibel.

Shortly after 1 p.m. Hizbullah gunmen fired several missiles at a structure in which the soldiers were staying. One missile hit the building, causing an arms cache to explode. Several soldiers were hurt as a result. A short while later, the structure partially collapsed, and a few other troops were hurt as well.

UPDATE:
Israeli forces have found Iranian troops among those Hizbullah minions. Gee, I'm not surprised one bit. Iran has been doing everything but throw the kitchen sink at Israel, so having Iranian troops engage Israeli forces directly doesn't seem a stretch. Does this mean Israel now has the right to go after Iran directly? It's an interesting question to say the least.

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources.

It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.

Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral.

Israel says many of the rockets being fired against its civilian and military targets are Iranian made, and that Hizbollah fighters taking on its forces trained in Iran. Washington also accuses Tehran of actively funding Hizbollah.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards are traditionally very close to fellow Shi'ite Muslims in Hizbollah and were deployed in south Lebanon in the 1980s.

Iran is clearly trying to use Lebanon as a proving ground for its weapons systems against the West, and Israel is fighting the West's first war against Iran. Make no doubt about this, Iran is not being coy about their intentions. They want to destroy Israel and they want to impose their religious visions on the world. And yet, the world shields itself from this cruel reality.

CBS News got an interview with Ahmadinejad and they asked him about the letter sent to President Bush. The answer provides quite the insight into the mind of a madman:

Speaking about President Bush's failure to answer his 18-page letter that criticized U.S. foreign policy, Ahmadinejad said, "Well, (with the letter) I wanted to open a window towards the light for the president so that he can see that one can look on the world through a different perspective. … We are all free to choose. But please give him this message, sir: Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate. You see that his approval rating is dropping every day. Hatred vis-à-vis the president is increasing every day around the world. For a ruler, this is the worst message that he could receive. Rulers and heads of government at the end of their office must leave the office holding their heads high."

The acceptance of the invitation is to submit to Islam. The failure to accept means war. War that the Islamists in Iran crave. That's the bad ending and fate that Ahmadinejad talks about. The whole nonsense about Bush's ratings are simply regurgitating US media reports.

Technorati: terrorism, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Rains, Summer, cavaliers, wrath, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.

Basayev the Butcher Killed In Russian Raid

Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, the purported author of modern Russia's worst terrorist attacks, has been killed, the head of the Federal Security Service said Monday. FSB head Nikolai Patrushev told President Vladimir Putin that Basayev had been killed overnight in Ingushetia, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.

Basayev is believed to be the mastermind of the Beslan school massacre that resulted in more than 330 killed - mostly women and children.

More detail on the operation to eliminate this terrorist can be found here.

UPDATE:
For a list of terrorist attacks claimed by Basayev, see here. His followers engaged in numerous mass casualty attacks against a wide range of targets, from schools to hospitals. Some details are emerging about how he died.

Patrushev gave no details of the operation in his televised remarks, but an Ingush regional Interior Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Basayev had been killed while accompanying a truck filled with 220 pounds of dynamite that blew up in the Ingush village of Ekazhevo early Monday.

Basayev was among four militants killed in the blast, which authorities earlier said had occurred inadvertently during a special police operation against rebels preparing an attack later Monday.

The Interfax news agency quoted Ingush Deputy Prime Minister Bashir Aushev as offering the same version of events and saying Basayev had been in a car accompanying the truck. He said Basayev's body had been identified "through some of the fragments, including his head," Interfax reported.

The message sent by the Russians to other terrorists: You can run, but you can't hide. That goes especially for the terrorists who murdered the four Russian diplomats in Iraq in most gruesome fashion.

UPDATE:
Rob Port, who also notes that Basayev could have had his meeting with the devil much sooner had ABC News provided the Russian authorities with details of his location when they interviewed him for a news report.

Others noting Basayev's elimination and date with the devil: Hot Air, Meryl Yourish, Blue Crab Boulevard, Charles at LGF, and The Moderate Voice.

UPDATE:
I don't think I can fully explain what eliminating Basayev does for the Russians. He has been a thorn in the side of Putin for years - and there are more than a 1,000 dead Russians as a result of his terrorist attacks. It's a huge victory for Putin.

The Agonist wonders whether it will really matter.


Others blogging Basayev's trip to the ninth plane of hell: Emperor Darth Misha, Assorted Babble, Security Watchtower, Pajamas Media, Gina Cobb, Western Resistance, Joseph Alex,

It's Only Life

A hostage taker involved in one of the bloodiest hostage sieges, the Beslan School massacre that resulted in over 330* people murdered (over 180 children), received a sentence of life in prison.

A Russian court sentenced the only surviving Beslan hostage-taker to life in prison on Friday for his part in the bloody 2004 school siege that killed 331 people.

Nurpashi Kulayev, a Chechen carpenter born in 1980, was found guilty on all charges, which included terrorism and murder. He had pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors had requested the death penalty for Kulayev, but Judge Tamerlan Aguzarov said a current moratorium on capital punishment ruled that out.

*Wikipedia claims that 344 civilians were killed in the siege.

Sole Surviving Beslan Terrorist Found Guilty

The sole surviving Islamic terrorist who assaulted Beslan School Number Three and took hundreds of men, women, and children hostage on the first day of the new school year (September 1, 2004) - and murdered 331* of them in a bloody end to the siege was found guilty of his criminal acts.

However, the article makes no mention of his Islamic ties, or that of the Chechen terrorist group that perpetrated the attack.

"The court has established that Kulayev took part in an armed attack and a hostage-taking..., that he committed murder against defenceless people," said Tamerlan Aguzarov, chief justice of the high court in the province of North Ossetia Tuesday.

"He committed an act of terrorism with the aim of influencing the decisions of the authorities," the judge told the court.

The prosecutor has asked for the death penalty for Kulayev, who had pleaded not guilty, although Russia has declared a moratorium on capital punishment.

Court officials said the reading of the entire verdict would take several days.

Kulayev is the only survivor among the 32 Chechens who stormed the packed school in Beslan in September 2004 and held children, teachers, parents and relatives hostage there for three days.

The siege came to a tragic end in a bloody gunbattle with rescue forces, in which 331 people died, 186 of them children.

The group that attacked School Number One in the North Ossetian town of Beslan was demanding the removal of Russian troops from Chechnya. Moscow's troops have been entrenched for the past decade in a war against Chechen separatists that takes lives every week.

It wasn't just a gunbattle, but the terrorists had rigged the school with explosives that would be set off if rescuers tried to enter the buildings. The place became a deathtrap.

*Wikipedia claims that 344 civilians were killed in the siege.

HT: LGF