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Experts: Valium Gas Used in Raid Military Experts, Toxicologists Suspect Valium Gas Used in Russian Troops' Theater Raid Oct. 26 — Military experts and toxicologists say Russian commandos probably pumped a gas containing Valium into a Moscow theater to subtly disable and disorient heavily armed Chechen rebels prior to Saturday's dramatic assault.Russian authorities didn't identify the gas used in the operation, which freed hundreds of hostages but also resulted in the deaths of more than 100 captives and rebels. Officials claimed none of the hostages were killed by the gas.Several nations, including the United States, have developed a variety...

MOSCOW, Oct. 26 — During their three-day siege of a Moscow theater, Chechen terrorists allowed hundreds of hostages to use personal cell phones to reassure their family members and relay new demands. What they didn’t know, officials here say, was that Russia’s security services were on the other end listening and gathering information crucial to ending the hostage crisis.

MOSCOW (AP) - Chechen gunmen shot and killed one of the hundreds of hostages being held at a Moscow theater, Russian news media reported Thursday. The killing was believed to have taken place in the early hours of the crisis that began when gunmen stormed the theater at 9:05 p.m. Wednesday, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing an unnamed police official at the scene. A television report showed a stretcher with a blanket-covered body being taken out of the theater. The report of the killing came as the crisis showed no signs of resolution. Thu Oct 24,10:00 AM ET Medics...

MOSCOW (AP) — Armed men entered a Moscow theater Wednesday and took the audience hostage, the Federal Security Service said. The theater was holding a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, one of the Russian capital's most popular productions. The Interfax news agency said one of its reporters was inside the theater at the time of the raid. She told them in a telephone call that the men had fired into the air and were preventing the audience from leaving, the agency said. Police units were on their way to the scene.

It is renovated by 24.10.2002 into 18:58:58 Version for the press/printing In the region of the seized building occurred two explosions.In the terrorists arrived Akhmad Of kadyrov In the region of the seized by terrorists theatrical center in Dubrovke in Moscow of approximately 18:20 on Thursday occurred two powerful explosions.On this reported the correspondent of TV broadcasting company NTV , which is located on the spot of events. According to him, the explosions were such strong that their echo was given a ride on entire block.Correspondent asserts that this exploded even not grenades, but something more powerful/thicker.They sounded with...

Americans have not yet taken much note of political violence in Russia — or of the dirty wars waged, for more than a decade, in restive former Soviet republics with unpronounceable names. But the taking of 600 hostages by Chechen terrorists at a Moscow theater should command our attention, because it may well hold clues to jihadists' future attacks in the United States. THE AL QAEDA CONNECTION In December 1994, Jokar Dudayev, a former Soviet air-force general, began fighting for an independent Chechnya. Since then, Moscow has seen a series of bombings which are thought to have been carried out...