- MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian
special forces stormed a Moscow theater on Saturday, ending a three-day
siege after Chechen guerrillas began killing some of their 700 hostages,
security officials said.
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- Scores died in the bloody dawn operation, including 32
of an estimated 40 Muslim fighters. The Chechen commander Movsar Barayev,
was among those killed in an assault that Russia's deputy interior minister
said had prevented a massacre of those seized while watching a Russian
musical on Wednesday evening.
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- It was not clear how many hostages, who included some
75 foreigners, may have died during the operation. Officials said at least
two hostages were executed by the guerrillas before the storming began.
A woman hostage had been shot dead early in the siege while trying to escape.
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- "We succeeded in preventing mass deaths and the
collapse of the building which we had been threatened with," Deputy
Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev told reporters outside the theater
as ambulances took away survivors of the ordeal.
-
- The rebels, who had rigged up explosives throughout the
building, had threatened to take start killing their hostages early on
Saturday if they did not see evidence that their demands that Russian troops
pull out of Chechnya were being met.
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- Vasiliyev said some gunmen may have escaped during the
hour or so of mayhem and urged Muscovites to be on the lookout:
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- "If they come and give themselves up now, we will
spare their lives. If this does not happen, we will track them down because
we view them as particularly dangerous criminals who will be shot on sight."
-
- President Vladimir Putin, forced to cancel a string of
foreign visits to handle the crisis, was informed of the operation in the
Kremlin, a presidential spokesman said.
-
- The end of the siege, which brought the distant Chechen
war to the heart of his capital, will be a relief to President Putin, though
any sense of triumph may depend heavily on the cost in civilian lives --
a toll that was as yet unclear.
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- MANY BODIES
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- A Reuters photographer saw many bodies lying on the pavement
in front of the theater. Some guerrillas were led out with their hands
bound behind their backs. Preliminary reports said there were no dead among
the security forces.
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- "The rebels had started killing the hostages. They
killed two people and the hostages then started trying to escape,"
Sergei Ignatchenko, spokesman for the FSB domestic security service, told
reporters at the scene.
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- "Having heard gunfire, special forces rushed into
the building. There were dead and injured among both hostages and terrorists.
The evacuation of the hostages has begun."
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- More than an hour after the siege ended, doctors were
tending to unconscious victims still lying inside the theater.
-
- Scores of other had been rushed to hospital in a fleet
of ambulances. At least 100 were being treated for shock in one Moscow
hospital. A car packed with women and children drove quickly away from
the scene shortly after the assault started.
-
- A pensioner living about 50 meters (yards) from the theater,
her eyes red and on the verge of tears, said: "It was like being in
hell. I couldn't sleep, I heard the sirens and now all I can do is walk
my dog and hope that some are still alive."
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- Another security official, Pavel Kudryavtsev, said the
guerrillas had detonated many of the explosives they had attached to columns
bearing the theater's ceiling when it became clear the security forces
were moving in.
-
- Some of the women in the self-styled "suicide squad"
had been filmed earlier in the siege with what they said were explosives
strapped to their waists. But it was not clear if they had set off the
charges.
-
- The guerrillas' daring raid had set Putin the toughest
test of his two and a half years in the Kremlin. His startling rise to
the presidency was largely based on his sending troops back into Chechnya
in 1999 after a three-year absence, a popular move which earned him a reputation
as a tough and effective leader.
-
- Humiliated by the audacious rebel attack, Putin went
on national television on Friday evening to say he was open to talks with
Chechen guerrillas, but under his terms.
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- "We are open to any kind of contacts," a somber
Putin said in his second set of televised comments since the attack.
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- He insisted that past conditions stood, notably that
separatists lay down their weapons. Moscow also rejects any idea of independence
for Chechnya, which Russian troops first invaded to crush a separatist
movement in December 1994.
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- Putin links Russia's conflict in Chechnya to the U.S.-led
global war on terrorism, which he enthusiastically backed after last year's
September 11 attacks on the United States.
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- DAWN ASSAULT
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- The dramatic end to the siege began in pre-dawn gloom
of a cold and rainy Moscow amid confusion. Officials said the guerrillas
had killed two male hostages and reporters heard a series of explosions
and bursts of gunfire.
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- Special forces troops, who had been crouching under cover
close by, advanced on the building and headed inside. An armored vehicle
moved into place. Dozens more troops then raced across the road toward
building.
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- The group of heavily armed Chechen rebels seized control
of the theater on Wednesday evening. Among the 75 foreigners held were
Americans, Britons, Germans and Austrians.
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- As a deadline of just before dawn passed, crackles of
gunfire and explosions were heard. There was no word on their fate. (Additional
reporting by Elizabeth Piper)
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