http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/wire/sns-ap-russia-
attack,1,5572234.story?coll=sns-ap-world-headlines
4:34 AM PDT, October 17, 2005
Chechen Claims Nalchik Responsibility
By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW -- A prominent Chechen warlord claimed he was behind last
week's militant attacks in the southern Russian city of Nalchik that
officials say left at least 139 people dead, according to a
statement posted on a rebel-connected Web site Monday.
Previous statements on the Kavkaz Center Web site said the attacks
were carried out by militants affiliated with the Chechen rebels,
but Monday's statement was the first claim of a direct connection to
Shamil Basayev.
"I carried out the general operative management," Basayev said,
according to the posting. There was no way to verify the statement's
authenticity.
In the posting, Basayev claimed the attacks on police and government
buildings in Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkariya
republic, were launched by fighters of the republic's section of the
so-called Caucasus Front, which is believed to include militant
cells throughout the restive Caucasus region.
Basayev was quoted as saying that the leader of the front in
Kabardino-Balkariya is "busy preparing other work that I have
assigned him."
In the statement, Basayev claimed 41 militants and about 140 Russian
security forces were killed in the fighting and that three Russian
helicopters were destroyed. Official Russian accounts say 94
militants, 33 security forces and 12 civilians were killed; there
have been no reports of damaged helicopters.
The region of Kabardino-Balkariya has long been affected by
spillover violence from nearby Chechnya, as well as by local
criminals. Earlier this year, police in Nalchik twice launched
assaults on alleged Islamic militants holed up in apartments.
Some Muslims accuse law enforcement authorities of persecuting
innocent believers who worship outside the officially sanctioned
mosques, falsely branding them as militants and planting
compromising evidence such as drugs or weapons to ensure their
prosecution.
Arsen Kanokov, who became president of Kabardino-Balkariya about
three weeks ago, has shown inclinations to back off the pressure on
the republic's Muslims.
"I believe it is wrong to close down mosques and herd people into
one place," the newspaper Kommersant quoted him as saying in an
interview published Monday. "Nothing will be achieved from attempts
to prevent people from praying."
Basayev, in the Kavkaz Center statement, said the militants had not
targeted Kanokov "because he has ordered that mosques be reopened
and this in fact saved his life."
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