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| Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia |
| Russian militants 'wanted planes for suicide bombings' |
| 2005-10-29 |
| Russian prosecutors said yesterday that an uprising in the southern town of Nalchik 16 days ago may have been aimed at seizing planes from the local airport for use in suicide bombings similar to the September 11 attacks in the US. Up to 200 Islamist militants targeted eight law-enforcement buildings simultaneously earlier this month, but an attack on the airport was repelled by federal troops. The deputy prosecutor general, Nikolai Shepel, told Interfax yesterday: "Our information suggests that the terrorists planned to attack 40 facilities in Nalchik and seize the local airport." He said he would be investigating reports that Shamil Basayev, the mastermind behind the Beslan siege, planned to use the airport's "civilian airplanes as a weapon of terror". Officials speculated at the time of the attack that militants planned to seize military craft at the airport and use them as suicide bombs against strategic targets. Officials have indicated that the majority of militants were local men, possibly tied to the underground Islamic jamaat, or council, known as Yarmuk. There have since been persistent protests in the town by grieving relatives demanding that the authorities return the bodies of dead militants. Russian laws permit the authorities to retain indefinitely the corpses of anyone they suspect may have been a terrorist, while Islamic beliefs call for burial within 24 hours of death. Mr Shepel's spokesman, Sergei Prokopov, said the seizure of the planes was only a theory. "Four civilian planes there were ready to fly," he said. "The airport was one of 40 objects, and if it was their main objective they might have concentrated their attack on it." He said police had learned about a possible attack on Nalchik days before October 13. A spokesman for the Russian security services, the FSB, said the militants may have planned to seize a plane of hostages. "That would have been a more realistic goal," he said. He said the FSB believed the attacked had been intended for early November and that hundreds more militants, some from Chechnya, would have taken part. But as a result of the tip-off, police and special forces began to sweep the sleepy spa town looking for arms caches. He said the militants "were forced to act and used what they had at hand". Officials previously speculated that any such attacks would have not been aimed at Moscow, which is too far away for a rogue aircraft to reach without being shot down, but at nearer cities such as the military stronghold of Rostov-on-Don. The FSB spokesman said recent strengthening of security in the garrison town was connected to the Nalchik raids. Yesterday the state Rossiskaya Gazeta newspaper reported that from November troops would patrol Rostov-on-Don, the key federal military base in the North Caucasus, alongside local police. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 "There have since been persistent protests in the town by grieving relatives demanding that the authorities return the bodies of dead militants/" So sorry. We haven't done the process of treating them with pig feces. o do a good job they have to soak for at least 6 months. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet O´ Doom 2005-10-29 21:23 |
| #2 MS Flight Sim? |
| Posted by: Pappy 2005-10-29 19:40 |
| #1 So who is teaching these guys how to take off? |
| Posted by: john 2005-10-29 15:37 |