Replies

Russia’s Islamic revolt is
spreading
Mark Franchetti, Moscow ,
and Alexei Shvedov, Nalchik

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.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1827623,00.html