A previously unknown Chechen rebel group said in a statement published Monday it conducted a bombing on the Moscow metro last month that killed at least 40 people. Web site www.kavkazcenter.com, which normally publishes statements from extremist rebel warlord Shamil Basayev, who has organized a string of suicide bombings against Russian targets, said it did not know who stood behind the group. The 'Gazotan Murdash' group sent the statement to the Web site three times -- first on February 8, two days after the bombing -- and then phoned the publishers before the site agreed to publish, Kavkazcenter said in a comment.
| "Yeah! We dunnit! Really! C'mon! Give us some pub!" |
"Our first operation was successfully conducted on February 6 on the Moscow metro," the statement said, saying it was revenge for an alleged atrocity by Russian soldiers in Chechen capital Grozny exactly four years before the metro blast. According to human rights group Memorial, 46 people died when Russian troops stormed through the Alda suburb in February 2000 as they consolidated power in mainly Muslim Chechnya after their return to the region in 1999. The statement, signed by Lom-Ali Chechensky, went on: "It was small, but good. Remember! This was revenge for Alda February 5-6, 2000, and it is only the beginning. An eye for an eye! An injury for an injury! Freedom or Death!"
| "No blood for oil! Up the revolution! Victory to the pee-pul! My mother, drunk or sober!" |
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