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Rebel leader 'came to die'
Barayev said on Russian TV the rebels were ready to die Movsar Barayev, the leader of the Chechen rebels holding hundreds of hostages at a Moscow theatre, was killed early on Saturday as Russian forces stormed the building. Russian Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vassilyev said that Barayev was among more than 30 rebels killed during the pre-dawn operation. Barayev - a relatively unknown rebel leader - was a nephew of one of the most notorious figures of the Chechen war, Arbi Barayev. After seizing the hostages on Wednesday night, Movsar Barayev said the rebels were ready and willing to die and would kill the hostages if Russia did not withdraw from Chechnya within a week. Ruthless uncle He was described by some Russian-backed Chechen officials as a middle-ranking rebel leader.
Barayev's uncle was blamed for the deaths of four foreign workers in 1998 According to a source within Russia's security services, the FSB, he took over command in July last year of a group of about 300 rebels previously led by his uncle, who had been killed by Russian forces a month before. Arbi Barayev was the most ruthless hostage-taker of Russians and Westerners in the breakaway republic, and was reported to have boasted that he had personally killed 170 people. It is alleged that he may have had links with Osama Bin Laden. He was the main responsible for the beheading of four captive telecommunication workers - three Britons and one New Zealander - in 1998. A fellow captive later told the BBC that he had been bidding for a $10m ransom from the men's employers, British Telecom and Surrey-based Granger Telecom, but he stood to get $20m more from "Arab friends" if he killed them. According to Russian sources, these friends were none other than al-Qaeda. The Barayev empire The Barayev empire at its height included a lucrative trade in Chechen oil and control of a main road through Chechnya. Millions of dollars were collected in ransoms paid for hostages. Although Arbi Barayev lived openly in his home village of Alkhan-Kala, Russian forces took no action against him for years. When they finally went on the attack the battle lasted for days, and resulted in massive destruction. Russian forces launched an operation in August 2001 to eliminate Movsar Barayev, and claimed to have killed him in Chechnya's second city of Argun. It was one of many such claims that later proved unfounded.
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Chechen rebels' hostage history
Hundreds were held in a hospital in Budyonnovsk From kidnapping aid workers, journalists and businessmen to seizing hospitals and now a theatre, Chechen rebels have become notorious as hostage-takers. They have often used civilians to draw international attention to their demands, ratchet up pressure on the Russian authorities and simply to extract hefty ransoms.
Some Kizlyar hostages were taken to Chechnya The first of three major 1990s hostage dramas took place six months after Russian forces marched into the breakaway republic at the end of 1994. A group of gunmen herded hundreds of civilians into a hospital in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk. They held the building for several days before Russian negotiators agreed to start peace talks and allow the gunmen to escape back to Chechnya. About 100 people were killed in all. The peace talks eventually broke down, but gave the Chechens time to regroup against Russian forces who had gained the upper hand in the fighting. The Russian president at the time, Boris Yeltsin, faced heavy criticism for letting the rebels off so lightly. Hospital crisis The incident was condemned by the then Chechen leader Dzhokhar Dudayev. But when militants staged a similar attack six months later in January 1996, they appeared to have his backing. This time some 250 militants held up to 3,000 people in a hospital in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar. They demanded a Russian withdrawal from Chechnya, before releasing most of the hostages and taking the remaining few back to Chechnya.
Dudayev is thought to As they made their getaway across the Chechen border, Russian troops launched an assault. Several hostages died in the following days as the Russian military brought the crisis to a bloody end. The situation was complicated when pro-Chechen gunmen hijacked a Black Sea passenger ferry. backed the Kizlyar hostage-taking The gunmen threatened to blow up the ship - and the 255 hostages on it - if the Russians did not halt their offensive against the Kizlyar hostage-takers. The hijackers surrendered after four days. Beheaded After the first Chechen war ended in 1996, the province descended into lawlessness and kidnappings became rife as rebel warlords fell out with Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. Victims included British aid workers Jon James and Camilla Carr, who were freed in September 1998 after a year in captivity, and four engineers who were kidnapped but later found beheaded
The Black Sea ferry hijackers surrendered after four days Herbert Gregg, an American missionary held hostage for seven months and released in July 1999, said much of his treatment was good - despite the fact that the rebels videoed themselves cutting one of his fingers off. In 1998 security firm Kroll Associates UK said that there were about 100 expatriates being held hostage in the region. Hijackingsand hotels Several hijackings and hostage takings in the last two years are a reminder that Russia's conflict with the Chechen rebels is far from over. Three people were killed when Saudi Arabian security forces stormed a plane which was diverted to Medina after it was hijacked as it flew from Istanbul to Moscow in March 2001. A week later, several pro-Chechen gunmen seized about 120 tourists at a luxury Istanbul hotel in protest against the war.
Muhammed Tokcan led the 2001 hostage-taking in an Istanbul hotel In July 2001, up to 30 people were held in searing heat on a bus in southern Russia by a Chechen man demanding the release of five Chechens who had been captured in a previous hijacking. And in May 2002, a lone gunman held about 10 people hostage - again at an Istanbul hotel. They were all released unharmed. Dramatic and bloody end to Russian hostage drama
Russian forces have stormed the theatre where Chechen guerrillas were holding hostage around 700 people. The assault succeeded in taking control of the building but left several hostages dead as well as most of the rebels. Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev told reporters: "We succeeded in preventing mass deaths and the collapse of the building which we had been threatened with." The state security chief said 34 out of around 40 guerrillas were been killed including Movsar Barayev, the leader of the so called "suicide death squad."He said the rest had been captured. There are no exact figures for how many hostages died in the storming of the theatre. An Australian diplomat has quoted local officials as saying no more than ten hostages were killed. He added that none of the foreign hostages, who numbered around 75, were among the dead.The mayor of Moscow has said he estimates up to thirty people were killed, indicating he was referring only to hostages. Witnesses have spoken of sleeping gas being used in this morning's operation.Buses were seen taking hostages away from the scene. A spokesman for the FSB domestic security service said the order to go in was given after the guerrillas started killing their hostages. Amid explosions and gunfire, Russian special forces stormed the theatre, where, since Wednesday evening, hundreds of people had been held captive by around forty Chechen rebels. Officials said at least two hostages were executed by the rebels before the storming began. A woman hostage had been shot dead early in the siege while trying to escape.
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