Beslan: Chechen mastermind
06/09/2004 16:37  - (SA)  

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Moscow - The militants who took 1 000 people hostage at a Russian school were the core of an armed group led by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, the Interfax agency cited prosecutors as saying on Monday.

The chief investigator of the Northern Caucasus prosecutor's office said that the hostage-takers, believed to have numbered around 30, had taken "active part" in a deadly raid in Ingushetia in June that was "organised by Basayev".

Mikhail Lapotnikov's comments were the first time that an official has publicly linked Basayev, Russia's most wanted man, to the three-day hostage siege that ended with over 300 dead.

Basyev has already claimed responsibility in a video posted on the Internet for the June raids on police and government targets in Ingushetia, which left up to 90 people dead, mainly Russian law enforcement officials.

Unnamed FSB officials quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency had already said Basayev was the mastermind behind the hostage-taking in the southern Russian town of Beslan.

- AFP

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