Everybody do the HAPPY DANCE!!!
Posted on 07/10/2006 10:31:28 AM PDT by PittsburghAfterDark
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, Russia's most wanted man, was killed overnight, handing a huge boost to President Vladimir Putin on Monday as he prepared to host a Group of Eight summit.
FSB security chief Nikolai Patrushev said Basayev, who had claimed responsibility for the bloody 2004 Beslan school siege, had been about to mount an attack in southern Russia to mar the weekend G8 summit Putin will chair in St Petersburg.
Putin, whose already huge popularity at home will be further boosted by the news as he prepares to meet President Bush and other world leaders, said Basayev's death was "deserved retribution" for his campaign of killing.
More than 331 people, half of them children, were killed in Beslan in September 2004 after Russian forces tried to end a siege of the school, which had been seized by Islamist militants linked to Chechnya's fight for independence.
"This is deserved retribution against the bandits for our children in Beslan, in Budennovsk, for all these acts of terror they committed in Moscow and other Russian regions, including Ingushetia and Chechnya," the Kremlin leader said in televised comments.
Budennovsk was a reference to an attack on a hospital in June 1995 -- long before Putin came to power. Rebels seized hundreds of hostages in the southern town and more than 100 people died during the assault and a botched Russian commando raid.
Patrushev said Basayev, along with other Chechen fighters, was killed in an operation by special forces in Ingushetia, a region neighboring Chechnya.
"They intended to use this terrorist act to put pressure on Russia's leadership at a time when the G8 summit was being held," Patrushev said.
Details of how Basayev was killed were not entirely clear, nor was the role played by special forces.
TRUCK EXPLOSION
According to state television, he was killed when a truck blew up while rebels were loading it with explosives in the village of Ekazhevo. He himself was sitting in a civilian car nearby and died in the massive explosion.
"There was an enormous explosion. All those who were in a radius of the blast were blown to pieces," Ingushetia's interior ministry Beslan Khamkhoyev was quoted as saying by Interfax news agency.
"In the morgue there are four bodies of fighters. We calculate that the number of fighters eliminated is 10," Khamkhoyev said. He added that the special operation had been meticulously planned.
Chechen rebel envoy Akhmed Zakayev told Ekho Moskvy radio that he doubted the official version. "I do not believe there was some operation carried out by Patrushev and his colleagues. I think this was a fatal accident," he said by telephone from London.
The heavily-bearded Basayev, who was born in 1965, professed to be a devout Muslim. His left foot was blown off by a mine in 2000 and he wore a false one.
Interfax quoted another senior Ingushetia official as saying he had been identified by body fragments, including his head and his prothesis.
Basayev, in a television interview aired last year, justified the attack on Beslan by saying Russian civilians, including children, were legitimate targets in his homeland's bloody fight for independence from Moscow.
"We are at war. Russians ... pay their taxes for this war, send their soldiers to this war, their priests sprinkle holy water on the soldiers," Basayev said in his soft lilt.
"How can they be innocent? Russians are accomplices in this war. It is just they don't all have weapons in their hands," he said in the interview with Britain's Channel 4.
Basayev was shocked to discover he wasn't in Paradise and wondered why he wasn't receiving his 72 virgins.
24 clones of Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright and Helen Thomas were made available to Basayev instead. Rumors that they all have VD and vaginas with teeth have not been substantiated by our sources in the afterlife. However he did receive 72 companions believed to be rudimentary female in form.
Everybody do the HAPPY DANCE!!!
Will Congressman Murtha issue a statement condemning the cold blooded murder of this man?
Goodbye Shlameal, Not it's time to party!!!!!!!
Will the NY Times question the methods used to get this guy?
"Truck blew up," huh? Wanna bet it had a little help, Spetsnaz-style?
}:-)4
basayev will find that hell isn't run by starving dehydrated school children
Good. Very good.
Of course not. He and his "bretheren" only think it's bad when the U.S. kills its enemies. The rest of the world can kill innocents and not worry about condemnation by Murtha and his ilk.
Excellent news. And to those who say that we haven"t gotten Bin Laden, this scumbag was Russia's most wanted for about 12 years. He operated in an area that is tiny compared to Afghanistan and Pakistan.
LOL. Hope the bastard had some time to suffer.
Interfax quoted another senior Ingushetia official as saying he had been identified by body fragments, including his head and his prothesis.
Good!
Well guess he's not the anti-Christ after all. I can't say I'm even a little bummed out. Not a smidgen.
Don't we need a he blowed up real good pic?
Satan welcomed the newest member to the Cicles of Hell personally.
This is Good.
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.