The mass hostage-taking at a Russian school was led by a senior Chechen rebel commander and possibly financed by al-Qaeda, Itar-Tass news agency quoted sources in the regional security service as saying. The sources said that according to early information, Chechen commander Magomet Yevloyev led the seizure of hundreds of children and adults in the school in the province of North Ossetia which ended in bloodshed on Friday. They said the operation had been planned by Shamil Basayev, Russia's most wanted Chechen rebel, who has been behind several major attacks outside Chechnya. Russian officials say rebels fighting for the region's independence from Moscow are under strong influence from Wahhabism, a strict form of Sunni Islam.
| Comes as a surprise, huh? |
Wahhabism, the only permitted form of Islam in Saudi Arabia, is banned in Russia. "Apart from that, there is information that the hostage seizure was financed by one of the ideologists of Wahhabism, Abu Omar As-Seyf, who is al Qaeda's representative in Chechnya," one source was quoted as saying. |