NotUrAverage_Si
Senior Member
click for link
Russia Ready to Strike Against 'Terror' Worldwide
By Elizabeth Piper
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Russia's top general said on Wednesday he was ready to attack "terrorist bases" anywhere in the world, as security services put a $10 million bounty on two Chechen rebels blamed for last week's school siege.
At the scene of the siege in the southern town of Beslan, medical workers began the painstaking task of identifying more than 100 bodies burned beyond recognition in the explosions which ended the crisis.
"As for launching pre-emptive strikes on terrorist bases, we will carry out all measures to liquidate terrorist bases in any region of the world," General Yuri Baluevsky, chief of Russia's general staff, said, according to Russian news agencies.
"However, this does not mean that we will launch nuclear strikes."
The FSB security service announced the $10 million reward for information leading to the "neutralization" of Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev, two Chechen separatist leaders who are household names in Russia after a decade of conflict in the mainly Muslim southern province.
More than 1,200 people were taken hostage in Beslan in the nearby province of North Ossetia and at least 326 were killed and 727 wounded, Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said, revising the death toll down from an earlier 335. Only 210 bodies have been identified.
"Another 32 body fragments have been found and ... final figures for the number of dead could rise," he said in a report to President Vladimir Putin, posted at www.kremlin.ru.
The broadcast on Russian television of graphic footage filmed by militants inside the school added to the horror as Beslan residents prepared to bury more dead.
The pictures showed the school gym littered with what appeared to be bombs and bomb-making equipment and crammed with hostages, watched over by around six of the masked militants, one of whom was heard murmuring, apparently in an Arabic prayer.
WAR ON MOSCOW
Authorities have blamed the hostage crisis on "international terrorists" -- something that critics said was a fig leaf to mask the failure of Russia's Chechen policy.
But the siege and ensuing battle were the latest in a string of attacks against Russian forces since August 1, when Maskhadov promised a fiercer war against Moscow's rule, although his London-based representative has denied he was behind Beslan.
Russia had previously offered rewards of $5 million for Basayev and $30,000 for Maskhadov.
One captured suspect said the hostage-takers numbered around 30, including two women, Ustinov said. At the start of the siege, some asked their leader why they had seized a school. He shot one of the waverers dead.
Ustinov said the militants later tried to rewire their bombs but one exploded, triggering the storming of the school -- something security analysts have slammed as a bungled operation.
Russia's Izvestia daily, citing troops who took part in the assault, said four of the hostage-takers were captured, including a woman.
Both the United States and the European Union advocate a political solution in Chechnya, although Putin has ruled out talks and says the West has double standards since its leaders would not sit down to negotiate with Osama bin Laden.
His view has some currency among ordinary Russians, thousands of whom attended rallies on Tuesday in solidarity with the families of Beslan.
A prominent banner at the main Moscow rally was adorned with British flags and read: "Want to help? Then extradite Zakayev!," a reference to Maskhadov's London-based spokesman who has political asylum in Britain.
In Beslan itself, around 200 angry people gathered outside the school, insisting that Putin should share the blame along with security forces and North Ossetian president Alexander Dzasokhov.
"If President Dzasokhov comes near me I'll kill him. My loved ones died, why should he live?," said Yevetta Khaureva, whose 10-year-old niece and 42-year-old sister both died.
