Some of the weapons used by militants in the deadly Russian school siege were pilfered from police posts in armed raids led by one of Chechnya's most notorious warlords, Russia's chief prosecutor said in an interview published yesterday. Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov's comments in the newspaper Rossiskaya Gazeta, which is supported by the Kremlin, suggested further evidence that the hostage-taking at School No. 1 in Beslan may have been organized by Shamil Basayev, one of Russia's most-wanted fugitives. The only suspected militant captured alive by Russian forces - a man identified as Nur-Pashi Kulayev - said earlier in footage broadcast on Russian television that they were carrying out an assignment from Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, a former president of Chechnya. The separatist Maskhadov has denied involvement in the attack.
| "Nope. Nope. Wudn't me. I'm moderate as the day is long!" |
Ustinov told the newspaper that authorities seized seven Kalashnikov rifles and three pistols from the militants that were stolen during coordinated June attacks in Ingushetia, which borders war-ravaged Chechnya and North Ossetia. Hundreds of fighters raided the police posts in an overnight attack, killing 88 people. A video on a pro-rebel Web site the next month showed Basayev and about 10 other camouflage-clad men pulling weapons and ammunition boxes off shelves in a building. On the video, Basayev identified the building as an Interior Ministry arsenal in Ingushetia. In Beslan, investigators have pursued leads that Basayev was the mastermind behind the Sept. 1 school attack, in which 32 heavily armed militants seized the school and more than 1,200 people with relative ease. |