The
Moscow Siege
"Abusaid, representative of the rebels, in a phone call to the BBC: 'We will start killing them, the people who are here. One by one we will kill them - all of them. We didn't come here to go home again, we came here to die. We are all suicide fighters.'" (BBC News)
News and commentary on the siege of the Moscow theater by Chechen terrorists.
October 2002
"Echoing Bush, Putin Vows Expansive Effort Against Terror" (Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times, 2002/10/28)
"As dawn neared, a light mist suddenly came down" (Alice Lagnado, The Times, 2002/10/28)
"Gas 'killed Moscow hostages'" (BBC News, 2002/10/27)
"Frightened Boy Triggered End to Moscow Siege" (Jon Boyle and Andrei Shukshin, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/10/27)
"'Russia Cannot Be Brought Down to Its Knees'" (Vladimir Putin, The Washington Post, 2002/10/26)
"90 Hostages Killed in Moscow Theater" (Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post, 2002/10/26)
"Pro-Chechen Islamist Website: Islamic Religious Interpretation Permits Killing of Prisoners" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 434, 2002/10/27)
"Russian forces storm siege theatre" (BBC News, 2002/10/26)
"Hostages die in Moscow operation" (CNN.com, 2002/10/26)
"Troops End Moscow Siege, Guerrillas Killed" (Maria Golovnina and Sergei Karpukhin, Reuters, 2002/10/26)
"Moscow rebels 'threaten executions'" (BBC News, 2002/10/25)
"Seven hostages freed in Moscow siege" (BBC News, 2002/10/25)
"Gunmen's Leader Has a History of Violence" (Nabi Abdullaev, The Moscow Times, 2002/10/25)
"In quotes: Moscow hostage crisis" (BBC News, 2002/10/25)
"Chechen Rebels Issue Threat" (Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post, 2002/10/25)
"Chechen Rebels Holding Hundreds Hostage Say They Are Ready to Die" (AP/FOX News, 2002/10/24)
"Chechens Kill One Moscow Hostage" (AP/The Guardian, 2002/10/24)
"Jihad@Work" (Mark Riebling and R.P. Eddy, National Review, 2002/10/24)
"Theatre's night of terror" (BBC News, 2002/10/24)
"Armed Gang Seize Hundreds in Moscow Theater" (Maria Golovnina, Reuters, 2002/10/23)
"Echoing Bush, Putin Vows Expansive Effort Against Terror" (Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times, 2002/10/28)
"President Vladimir V. Putin said today that Russia was prepared to strike at international terrorist groups and the countries that harbor them, explicitly echoing the arguments that President Bush made after the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to declare a war on terrorism. ... Mr. Putin ordered Russia's military to draft new doctrine that would adapt its forces and tactics to counter the threat from terrorism both internally and externally, presaging sweeping changes for a military that has been slow to change. "The tragic events are over," Mr. Putin said, 'but there still remain very many problems. We are paying a heavy price for the weakness of the state and inconsistency of actions.'""As dawn neared, a light mist suddenly came down" (Alice Lagnado, The Times, 2002/10/28)
An account of the ending of the Moscow siege: "As dawn approached, a light mist suddenly started to come down from the ceiling. Some of the hostages' mobile phones were still running. Natasha, a Russian woman, managed to get through to Echo of Moscow, the radio station that had broadcast live telephone conversations with dozens of trapped hostages from the beginning of the siege. This was the most terrifying phone call they had received yet. It was 5.30am. Sitting with her sister, Yevgenia, Natasha told millions of Russians live on air: "They’re letting in gas." ... As Natasha clung to her phone, the shooting started. She collapsed, sedated by the gas that had been pumped through a hole in the wall of the theatre by Russian special forces. Her phone was picked up by Anya Andreyanova, a reporter for the Moskovskaya Pravda newspaper. "We are begging," she screamed. "Please, guys, don’t leave us." Amid more shots and a loud explosion, she shouted, desperate to keep the slender thread between her and journalists in a studio miles away intact. "Can you hear this?" she asked them. "We are about to be blown to the Devil.'""Gas 'killed Moscow hostages'" (BBC News, 2002/10/27)
"Almost all the 117 hostages who were killed when Russian troops stormed a Moscow theatre on Saturday died from gas poisoning, it has been admitted. Only one of those held for three days by Chechen rebels died of gunshot wounds, said Andrei Seltsovsky, chairman of the health committee of the city of Moscow. ... More claims have meanwhile emerged that international guerrillas had a hand in the hostage-taking. The Russian authorities in Chechnya have said that a substantial number of the female rebels were of Middle Eastern origin. This echoes President Vladimir Putin's recent suggestion that there were Arabs and Afghans among the hostage-takers. The Russian security service later said that it had intercepted intensive exchanges over mobile telephones between the hostage-takers and Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey." (See also: "Russians probe al-Qa'eda link as Moscow siege ends with 150 dead" (Christina Lamb and Ben Aris, The Daily Telegraph, 2002/10/27): "The Telegraph has learned that a number of Arab fighters, believed to be of Saudi Arabian and Yemeni origin, were among the group that seized control of the theatre." There were definitely Arab terrorists in the building with links to al-Qa'eda," said a senior Western diplomat. 'The Russians will now want to know how much help the Chechens received from bin Laden's organisation.'")"Frightened Boy Triggered End to Moscow Siege" (Jon Boyle and Andrei Shukshin, Reuters/Yahoo! News, 2002/10/27)
"But on the third night of captivity, with tensions inside the theater rising as conditions became ever more squalid, one young boy in a rear seat snapped, said Chernyak. He threw a bottle at the guerrillas and ran down the aisle. "He dashed toward the exit, shouting: 'Mummy, I don't know what to do.' They opened fire on him, but missed and hit seated people instead," she told Russian television from her hospital bed late on Saturday. "They hit a guy in the eye. There was a lot of blood, bubbling blood. And a girl was hit in the side. Then they told us: 'Don't worry. Everything's all right." Hearing the gunfire, commanders of hundreds of elite storm troopers who had surrounded the theater believed the guerrillas had acted on a threat to start shooting hostages if demands for a Russian troop withdrawal from Chechnya were ignored. ... Chernyak said that throughout the siege the guerrillas kept threatening hostages with imminent death, telling them the building was rigged with explosives and nobody would escape. ... The presence of 18 female suicide fighters with explosives strapped to their waists among the hundreds of frightened theater-goers added to the atmosphere of fear and violence, Chernyak said. "These Chechen girls, they were so happy that finally they were about to be free, that finally they were about to blow themselves up," Chernyak said.""'Russia Cannot Be Brought Down to Its Knees'" (Vladimir Putin, The Washington Post, 2002/10/26)
The text of President Vladimir Putin's nationally televised address to the Russian people as translated by The Washington Post: "We managed to achieve the almost-impossible, which was to save the lives of hundreds, hundreds of people. We have proved that Russia cannot be brought down to its knees. But now first of all I want to appeal to the relatives and close ones of those who died. We failed to save everyone. Forgive us. ... We are also appreciative of our friends across the world for their moral and practical support in the struggle with our common foe. This foe is strong and dangerous, inhuman and cruel. This is international terrorism. Until it is defeated, people cannot feel safe anywhere in the world. But it must be defeated. And it will be defeated."
"90 Hostages Killed in Moscow Theater" (Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post, 2002/10/26)
"'We were waiting to die,' Olga Chernyak, a reporter from Interfax news service who was in the audience when the Chechen militants seized the theater Wednesday night, said in a report by her agency. "We realized that they would not release us alive. We did not believe they would let us go even if all their demands were met and troops are withdrawn from Chechnya." Chernyak confirmed official accounts that the militants killed two hostages during the night, a man and a woman. "The man was shot in the eye and there was a lot of blood," she said. 'I was sitting in the middle of the stalls and everything was happening near me. I thought then that we would all be killed. Something happened later and I fainted.'""Pro-Chechen Islamist Website: Islamic Religious Interpretation Permits Killing of Prisoners" (MEMRI, Special Dispatch Series - No. 434, 2002/10/27)
"On the Islamic internet site www.qoqaz.com which is hostile towards the Russians, and is probably run by Chechens, there are a number of unsigned articles which deal with Islam's position towards prisoners. ... In an article titled "A Guide to the Perplexed Regarding the Permissibility of Killing Prisoners," which appeared in the column "Jihad News from the Land of the Caucasus" the author suggests that the Islamic religious scholars present five different alternatives, drawn from the various interpretations of the Koran:
1. A polytheist prisoner must be killed. No amnesty may be granted to him, nor can he be ransomed.
2. All infidel polytheists and the People of the Book (i.e., Jews and Christians) are to be killed. They may not be granted amnesty, nor can they be ransomed.
3. Amnesty and ransom are the only two ways to deal with prisoners.
4. Amnesty and ransom are possible only after the killing of a large number of prisoners.
5. The Imam, or someone acting on his behalf, can choose between killing, amnesty, ransom or enslaving the prisoner.""Russian forces storm siege theatre" (BBC News, 2002/10/26)
"Nearly 350 people were taken to hospital, many in a serious condition, the French news agency AFP quoted medical sources as saying. Most of the casualties were suffering from severe gas poisoning. Troops had released sleeping gas into the theatre to subdue the rebels before they stormed the complex at about 0600 local time (0200 GMT). ... The BBC's Jonathan Charles, who is at the scene, says this was not a planned operation but one which was triggered by events. ... The rescue operation began when some of the hostages tried to escape after the rebels shot two of their captives and injured at least two others. In the ensuing panic, the hostages inadvertently set off booby traps laid in the theatre by the rebels. Russian special forces then rushed to their aid, engaging in a pitched gun battle which lasted more than an hour.""Hostages die in Moscow operation" (CNN.com, 2002/10/26)
"Sixty-seven hostages died during an operation to free captives held by Chechen rebels in a Moscow theatre and two hostage-takers remain at large, Russian officials have said. Thirty-four hostage-takers were also killed after Russian special forces, the Federal Security Service, stormed the building at 5.30 a.m. local time on Saturday after the Chechens began executing those being held, Russia's deputy interior minister, Vladimir Vasilyev, said.""Troops End Moscow Siege, Guerrillas Killed" (Maria Golovnina and Sergei Karpukhin, Reuters, 2002/10/26)
"Russian forces stormed a Moscow theater on Saturday, killing most of the Chechen guerrillas who had started to execute captive theatergoers, but some of the 700 hostages also died, officials said. State security chief Nikolai Patrushev said 34 Muslim fighters had been killed and the rest had been taken captive, Russian news agencies reported. "None of them managed to get away," he said. Early reports indicated most of the hostages were rescued alive, ending their ordeal which began with Wednesday night's takeover, but there was confusion over how many had died. "Unfortunately there have been victims. I calculate them at up to 30," said Moscow mayor Yuri Luzkhov, his language clearly indicating he was talking about the hostages not their captors. Diplomats said none of some 75 foreigners among the captive theatergoers had died, and quoted officials as saying no more than 10 hostages had been killed in all. ... The Chechen commander Movsar Barayev was among those killed in an assault that Russia's deputy interior minister said had prevented a massacre of those seized while watching a Russian musical on Wednesday evening. Officials said at least two hostages were executed by the guerrillas before the storming began.""Moscow rebels 'threaten executions'" (BBC News, 2002/10/25)
"Rebels holding hundreds of hostages in a Moscow theatre have reportedly threatened to start executing their captives on Saturday morning. The heavily armed group says it will start shooting people if its demand for a Russian withdrawal from the breakaway republic of Chechnya is not met, a theatre official has said after speaking to captives. ... But reports from hostages say the guerrillas are giving Russia only 12 hours to meet their demands, before they start shooting the captives. ... The atmosphere inside the theatre is said to be becoming increasingly threatening, with reports that many of the hostages have been tied in their seats and some have had explosives strapped on to them.""Seven hostages freed in Moscow siege" (BBC News, 2002/10/25)
"A Chechen suicide squad holding hundreds of people hostage in a Moscow theatre released seven more hostages early on Friday. ... The releases came shortly after the rebels allowed a television crew to meet their leader and some of the people being held inside for the first time. ... NTV's crew were shown into a theatre kitchen and not allowed into the auditorium. They filmed men in masks and a veiled woman wearing what appeared to be explosives strapped to their chests with electric leads. The rebels were also armed with assault-rifles, grenades and pistols. ... The Russian journalists spoke to the rebel group's leader, Movsar Barayev, the only rebel who showed his face.""Gunmen's Leader Has a History of Violence" (Nabi Abdullaev, The Moscow Times, 2002/10/25)
"Movsar Barayev, a nephew of the slain warlord Arbi Barayev, is reputed to belong to one of the most unscrupulous Chechen clans, whose men gained notoriety for kidnapping, torturing and executing hostages. The 1998 execution of four kidnapped telecom engineers from Britain and New Zealand has been attributed to the Barayevs. NTV television showed footage identified as a video sent by the Barayevs to the relatives of one of their hostages. Movsar, stocky and unshaven, was shown smiling, twirling a knife and then lowering the blade toward the neck of an unidentified woman who was bent forward, her hair flipped over her face. "They are Wahhabis [followers of a radical Islamic movement], and non-Muslims are not human beings for them," a Dagestani man held hostage by the Barayevs in 1999 said in an interview this summer. "For them, killing Russians is like killing sheep." Arbi Barayev, the head of the clan and commander of a rebel formation called the Islamic Regiment, was killed in a bombing raid in June 2001, after which Movsar took over." (See also: "Who is Movsar Barayev?" (Artyom Vernidoub, Gazeta.ru, 2002/10/24): "Movsar Barayev is also known as Movsar Suleimenov. He is the nephew of the infamous warlord Arbi Barayev, who gained notoriety by establishing a huge slave-trading network throughout Chechnya. Arbi Barayev was slain in summer 2001 in his home village of Alkhan-Kala. After his uncle’s death Movsar took command of most of his uncle’s men. It is believed that Suleimenov and his younger subordinates controlled all the rebel groups in Grozny, though his name was hardly ever mentioned in connection with rebel raids against the federals. Federal forces, though, have repeatedly claimed to have killed him.")"In quotes: Moscow hostage crisis" (BBC News, 2002/10/25)
"Abusaid, representative of the rebels, in a phone call to the BBC: 'We will start killing them, the people who are here. One by one we will kill them - all of them. We didn't come here to go home again, we came here to die. We are all suicide fighters. If [the Russian Government] acts quickly, we'll leave here quickly. If they don't stop the war and pull out their troops, we'll hold out here for a week. After a week goes past we'll blow up the whole theatre.'""Chechen Rebels Issue Threat" (Peter Baker and Susan B. Glasser, The Washington Post, 2002/10/25)
"More than 24 hours into the ordeal, a few hostages managed to call out on cell phones to report the atmosphere inside was deteriorating. "The tension is escalating," said one of them, Maria Shkolnikova. "The demands of the terrorists are turning into an ultimatum." She told Echo Moskvy radio that the situation could soon turn bloody. "They say, 'You have been sitting here for more than 10 hours and your government has done nothing to release you,' " she recounted. "The main thing they need is a troop pullout from Chechnya. If there is no pullout, they will start shooting people." Soon, one of the hostage-takers took her phone. Calling himself Hasmamat, the Chechen rebel said to Echo Moskvy: "Our demands are of the very simplest: Stop the war and withdraw the troops." ... Later this morning, the militants issued a new demand, calling on relatives of the hostages to organize an anti-war protest in Red Square. A woman who identified herself only as Nadejda said her 23-year-old sister called her from inside the theater to relay the demand.""Chechen Rebels Holding Hundreds Hostage Say They Are Ready to Die" (AP/FOX News, 2002/10/24)
"Chechen rebels holding hundreds of hostages in a Moscow theater shot and killed one captive and said they were ready to die for their cause, warning Thursday that thousands more of their comrades were "keen on dying." "We decided to die in Moscow and will take with us hundreds of sinners," they said in a videotape aired on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera satellite TV channel. ... In a broadcast monitored in Cairo, Egypt, Al-Jazeera aired videotaped statements by some of the estimated 40 hostage-takers. The speakers, faces covered, stood before a banner written in Arabic script that declared "Allahu Akbar," which means God is Great. ... "I swear by God we are more keen on dying than you are keen on living," a black-clad male hostage-taker said in the broadcast. "Each one of us is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of God and the independence of Chechnya." "Even if we are killed, thousands of brothers and sisters will come after us, ready to sacrifice themselves," declared a female hostage-taker, covered in a black robe except for her eyes. An Al-Jazeera employee said the tape had been delivered on Wednesday, apparently before the raid.""Chechens Kill One Moscow Hostage" (AP/The Guardian, 2002/10/24)
"Chechen gunmen shot and killed one of the hundreds of hostages taken captive in a Moscow theater to demand Russia end its bloody war in the Caucasus province, news media reported Thursday. ... At least 40 Chechen rebels have threatened to kill their hostages, but more than 100 women and children have been released, Moscow police spokesman Valery Gribakin said. The freed hostages were sobbing and shaking as they emerged from the theater which holds 1,163 people. ... A pro-rebel Web site, www.kavkaz.org, said Thursday that Russia had seven days to begin withdrawing from Chechnya or the theater would be blown up. ... An explosion reverberated in the area early Thursday, but its location and source were not immediately determined.""Jihad@Work" (Mark Riebling and R.P. Eddy, National Review, 2002/10/24)
"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. ... That al Qaeda has trained these Chechens - and perhaps even planned some of their operations - is clear. In fact, the Chechen conflict has long been seen by bin Laden as but one front in the global jihad which began on February 14, 1989, when the last Soviet soldiers Afghanistan. ... A website that supports the Chechens quoted the squad's commander, Mosvar Barayev, as saying that bombs were in the theater and that his charges were there "to die, not to survive." The website called the hostage takers smertniki, fighters martyred to a cause, as if their death were a foregone conclusion. ... The audacity, the planning, the potential toll in life are of that epic scale. "By the scope it can only be compared to the tragedy in New York," liberal lawmaker Boris Nemtsov said last night on Russian television. The jihadists - most with al Qaeda connections, but some without - are likely to follow this pattern for some time to come. This kind of terrorism, the engineering of miniature holocausts, meets their strategic needs. It is intended to sow doubt and fear in non-Muslim nations about the wisdom of resisting jihad.""Theatre's night of terror" (BBC News, 2002/10/24)
"One of the gunmen took centre stage during Act II, firing shots to the ceiling and shouting "Stop the war in Chechnya", according to eyewitness reports. ... Members of the audience were allowed to use their mobile phones to call their families for a few hours after the gunmen seized the theatre. One woman pleaded live on NTV television for the security forces not to storm the building. "Please do not start storming. There are a lot of explosives. Don't open fire on them. I am very scared, I ask you please do not start attacking", said Tatyana Solnyshkina. She said they were being treated very well, but their lives were at risk. "The only condition they are setting is that for every one of them who is killed they will immediately shoot 10 of us. The appeal was broken off when a gruff voice intervened, and the line went dead. ... An Interfax reporter attending the musical said the men claimed to have wired the building with explosives and were calling themselves 'the suicide troops from the 29th Division.'""Armed Gang Seize Hundreds in Moscow Theater" (Maria Golovnina, Reuters, 2002/10/23)
"Up to 30 armed men and women, apparently Chechens and wearing masks, seized hundreds of people in a Moscow theater late on Wednesday and threatened to blow it up if police stormed the building, witnesses and police said. Officials refused to say who was behind the attack, but witness accounts pointed to an attack by Chechen separatist guerrillas. ... A teenager released by the gang told Russian television that the armed gang wanted "the war to be stopped," an apparent reference to the long-running secessionist war in Russia's turbulent Chechnya province. The teenager, among youngsters immediately released by the hostage-takers, said the group of 20-30 attackers had burst into the theater, which was showing the musical "North-East," one firing a burst of bullets into the ceiling. "He told all the actors to sit down on the front rows. Then women and men came in with masks. "Some women were strapped with explosives and they said they would blow up the whole building in 10 minutes if they (police) started to storm the building," Denis Afanasyev, a teenager told Russian television. ... Eyewitnesses said 18-20 children were released from the building as well as Muslims. One released woman said: 'They were Chechens, and they didn't bother hiding it.'"
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