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| Caucasus |
| Hostage-takers were al-Qaeda alumni |
| 2004-09-06 |
| Russian investigators said Arab operatives linked to Al Qaida played a major role in the takeover of a Russian school in which 400 people were killed. Russian officials said authorities have determined that 10 of the 32 suicide attackers who took over a high school in Beslan in North Ossetia last week were nationals from several Arab countries. Most of the attackers were Chechens and Ingush who had been trained at Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan. The 10 Arab nationals came from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Syria, officials said. They said security forces seized notebooks in Arabic in the school taken over by insurgents. Officials said survivors told authorities that some of the captors spoke Arabic during the three-day hostage ordeal. All of the captors were said to have been killed, but three accomplices were arrested, Middle East Newsline reported. The Arab nationals were said to have been recruited in the Middle East and hosted by Shamil Basayev, head of the Chechen insurgency and aligned with Al Qaida. "We're hoping to release additional information over the next few days," an official said. "But precise details will require cooperation from our allies." The officials said the attackers were trained in Al Qaida camps in Afghanistan and financed by Abu Omar Al Seif, regarded as a leading Al Qaida operative and the organization's representative in Chechnya. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Wonder if the Saudis plan to cooperate with the Russians? Or maybe, if the Saudis don't cooperate, we should sick URIIT on those bad boy Saudi princes. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2004-09-06 7:14:42 PM |