Posted on 09/04/2004 6:39:25 AM PDT by Cronos
DUBAI: An Islamist group calling itself the Islambouli Brigades, which claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Russia last month, denied any link to the school hostage bloodbath in the north Caucasus, in a purported internet statement on Saturday.
"We announce that none of our cells have any link with this operation," said the statement, whose authenticity could not be independently verified.
"We did not take part, neither with arms nor with funds," said the statement, posted on an Islamist website. "We salute the efforts of our brothers in Chechnya to defend their dignity and their religion ... and we attribute to the revolting Russian government responsibility for the (North) Ossetia operation.
"The Russian government is responsible for the situation which resulted in this (hostage-taking) operation, whose claims were legitimate," it added.
The crisis saw some 250 dead and 700 wounded in a battle between security forces and heavily armed militants who took around 1,000 men, women and children hostage at a school in the town of Beslan in the republic, which borders Chechnya.
The militants had demanded full independence for the Muslim republic of Chechnya. "We will not be silent ... until the soldiers of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin have withdrawn from Muslim Chechnya," the statement said.
The Islamist group last month claimed responsibility for a deadly blast outside a Moscow subway station as well as twin bombings of Russian airliners which killed 90 people the previous week.
The group is named after Egyptian Islamist army officer Khaled al-Islambouli who took part in the assassination of president Anwar Sadat in Cairo in 1981.
Interesting that NONE of the media reports of the terrorists' demands that I heard or read said that they wanted the Russian soldiers "out of MUSLIM Chechnya." It makes me sick to see how these facts are censored from news accounts of these attacks.
They can deny responsibility, but they cannot escape it.
Liars! Baby Killers!
"Islamist group denies responsibility:"
Who cares!
If they approve of it,(which they do) they are as guilty and a legitmate target.
They're just realizing that shooting fleeing schoolchildren in the back creates a bit of a PR hurdle.
Sounds like something Kerry would say, considering his speeches about soldiers in Vietnam.
I think they see tough times coming for them. Putin
doesn't appear to be a big fan of political correctness.
Russia recently suppressed Christianity for what, 70 years? I somehow don't think they would have any qualms about suppressing mosques for the next 50 years or so.
I doubt that Russia and Putin will have any reservations
about destroying Holy Islamic shrines if they have any hint
the shrine is housing factions that killed children as a message sending device.
So what if they weren't the ones that did it? I'm sure they applaud their muslim breathren. They must all be destroyed
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