Free Republic

Russian troops killed at least 22 rebels in separatist Chechnya Monday, including a man officials said was linked to the assassination of Chechnya's pro-Moscow president, media reported. Akhmad Kadyrov was killed on May 9 in a bomb attack that damaged President Vladimir Putin's peace plan for the Muslim province. Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev later claimed responsibility for the assault. Ramzan Kadyrov, the killed leader's son, said special troops had infiltrated a rebel base in Chechnya's turbulent Vedensky region and killed 22 militants in a brief gun battle. Kadyrov said one of the dead was a member of the group under...

THE full horror of the Russian school atrocity began to emerge yesterday as traumatised children told horrific tales of stabbed babies and brutal rapes. It has also emerged that scores of the 323 who died - including many children - had been shot in the back. While despairing soldiers and rescue workers moved among the growing pile of body bags, it was revealed that an 18-month-old baby had been repeatedly stabbed by a black-clad terrorist who had run out of ammunition. Other survivors told how screaming teenage girls were dragged into rooms adjoining the gymnasium where they were being held...

MOSCOW. Feb 12 (Interfax) - The Federal Security Service and audit agencies have prevented $40 million in foreign loans from being used to fund Chechen rebels. "A Russian commercial organization that has contacts with a number of rebel ringleaders wanted to obtain the foreign loans," Federal Security Service Deputy Director Yury Zaostrovtsev said at the 6th conference of the Association of Russian Audit and Controlling Agencies. The Federal Security Service and the Audit Chamber prevented the misuse of 2.4 billion rubles in 2003. The funds were allocated for the economic and social rehabilitation of Chechnya, economic programs in south Russia...

BREAKING NEWS: Suicide Bombers Kill 40 at Chechen Government HQ By Maria Golovnina and Jon Boyle MOSCOW (Reuters) - Suspected Chechen rebel suicide bombers rammed vehicles packed with a ton of explosives into the local government headquarters in Grozny on Friday, gutting the building and killing at least 40 people. Two huge explosions went off within a minute of each other, devastating the four-story government building, gutting rows of official vehicles and spewing debris over a wide area. Television pictures showed bodies scattered on the frozen ground as small groups of dazed staff and security personnel, blood pouring from head...

<p>MOSCOW — Chechen rebels holding hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theater have agreed to release 75 foreign captives, a security official said early Friday. But more than 500 Russian hostages were to remain inside as the siege entered its second night.</p>

MOSCOW — Georgia on Monday sent hundreds of heavily armed Interior Ministry troops into its Pankisi Gorge, a crime-infested area where Moscow says Tbilisi has allowed Chechen rebels and foreign Islamic militants to set up bases. In a parallel operation, 1,500 army troops — under the command of officers who have had U.S. anti-terrorism training — began exercises in the Akhmeta district near the southern edge of the gorge. "The anti-criminal operation first and foremost is aimed at bringing order to the Pankisi Gorge and cleansing it of criminals and terrorists should they be there," Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said...