Terror Attacks

by Ann Williams

  On December 23, the Chechen Black Widows claimed responsibility for the attack. Later that year one of the suicide bombers was identified as Khadishat Mangeriyeva, the second wife of Ruslan Mangeriyev, who had been killed the previous summer. Both Mangeriyev’s sister and his third wife had already avenged his death in a similar manner.

  BOMB EXPERT KILLED

  A Russian bomb specialist was killed while trying to defuse an explosive device outside a café in central Moscow on Friday, February 6, 2004. He was well-known for his work with explosives, and was one of the men who had been called to the rock concert in 2003. A woman, who was believed to be in her 20s, had tried to enter the café, but because of her suspicious behaviour was not allowed in. When she was approached by a security officer, the woman became agitated and started to threaten the officers, saying, ‘I’m going to blow this place up.’

  The security officers removed her bag, covered it with flak jackets and waited for members of Russia’s Federal Security Services to arrive. However, efforts to defuse the device using robots and water cannons failed. The bomb expert was killed as he approached the bag and, although he was wearing a special protective suit, the explosive force of 400 g (14 oz) proved to be too powerful.

  No one claimed responsibility for the attack, but Russian police and security officials are certain that the attack was linked to Chechen rebels, in particular the Black Widows.

  SABOTAGE ON PASSENGER PLANES

  Two Russian passenger planes that crashed in 2004 are believed to have been the targets of the Black Widow Brigade. Officials have discovered the remains of two Chechen women, thought to be suicide bombers, and traces of explosives in the wreckage. The loss of the two planes, which blew up just three minutes apart, was the first successful attack on passenger aircraft by Islamic extremists since September 11.

  The smaller of the two planes, a Tu-134, carrying 44 people, crashed near Tula in the south of Moscow. The Chechen woman on board this plane was identified as Amanta Nagayeva, who only bought her ticket one hour before the flight took off. Although her body was completely destroyed by the blast, experts managed to find two tiny fragments 2.4 km (1H miles) apart. She was the only person on board that flight who did not have her remains claimed. Nagayeva was born in 1977 near Vedeno, which was the home of the militant Chechen warlord, Shamil Basayev, and lived in Grozny, the Chechen capital.

  The larger jet exploded near the Russian city of Rostov, killing 46 people, and among the wreckage, experts found traces of the military explosive hexogen. Another Chechen woman, named as S. Djerbikhanova, who was initially booked on another flight, changed her ticket at the last minute to the smaller evening flight. She sat in seat number 19F, which was just nine rows from the tail, which is considered to be the most vulnerable part of a plane. Once again hers were the only remains that remained unclaimed.

  These last two attacks were an embarassment for President Putin, who had gained power on a promise to try and eradicate Chechen violence and to bring renewed security to Russia. It is still uncertain how Djerbikhanova managed to get through passport control, as she had given no personal details when she bought her ticket, and Putin made a statement that all airport security would now have to be tightened in the wake of the recent events.

  WEB OF VIOLENCE

  The face of the female terrorist in Chechnya is a relatively new phenomenon, even though the use of women for deadly terrorist attacks has existed in Lebanon, Israel, Syria, Sri Lanka and Turkey possibly since the 1980s. The Black Widow women are known as shakhidki, or martyrs, who are driven by intimately personal motives of fear and terror of what has happened to their husbands, brothers, fathers or sons at the hands of the Russian federal troops.

  The ranks of the Black Widow are filled mainly by young women, many only 15–16 years old. Not all the women were widows, for some of the younger ones had not even married, and they came from totally different social backgrounds. Some had professional careers, while others were unemployed and came from families severely affected by poverty. One thing they did all have in common though, was the hatred and disgust of what was happening to Chechyna with its ongoing war with Russia. They were all trained in special camps by psychologists and experts in explosives. Some were voluntarily recruited, while others joined after having been ‘sold’ to rebel groups. They were subjected to drugs, rape, blackmail and brainwashing, until eventually they were ready to commit suicide for their cause.

  Although the Black Widows generally work on their own or in small groups, it must be remembered that they are part of a much larger web of violence and always act on behalf of their rebel group. The groups often pinpoint women who have suffered extreme personal distress, because not only are they more willing to act as a suicide bomber, but the sheer fact that they are women ‘martyrs’ attracts a wider media coverage. They hope that by presenting black widows in a sympathetic light, it will give them more support from the community.

  What is still puzzling the authorities is who exactly is ordering the terror attacks, and do they have any links to al-Qaeda and other jihad organizations outside of Russia? There has been a history of such links going back more than a decade, and there is also little doubt that Osama bin Laden used the Chechen cause to his own aim. Although there is no proof that al-Qaeda is the driving force behind the recent spell of Black Widow terror attacks, in the world of international terror, no one is prepared to rule it out.

  Beslan School Hostage Crisis

  This generation will lead us to freedom.

  Shamil Basayev

  The Beslan School Hostage Crisis was internationally condemned as one of the worst terrorist atrocities ever to take place. The fact that a large number of children were taken hostage and killed, and that a total of 344 civilians died, provoked outrage across the political spectrum. Any sympathy that onlookers around the world might have had for the Chechen rebels evaporated when the true extent of the terrorists’ brutality during the siege became known: children had been raped, tortured and murdered by the armed gunmen; mothers had been forcibly separated from their children, often forced to choose which ones to stay with and which ones to leave behind; infants, children, parents and teachers had been crammed into a hot, overcrowded gymnasium wired with explosives for days on end; and the terrorists had refused to allow the removal of dead bodies that lay rotting on the ground during the ordeal. The surviving hostages’ ordeal proved so appalling that some committed suicide after they were set free, while others suffered permanent psychological damage.

  As many commentators pointed out, there could be no political cause that could possibly warrant such brutal behaviour, especially towards innocent children and infants. As UN Secretary Kofi Annan announced after the crisis was over:

  The brutal and senseless slaughter of children only served to emphasize the need for the world community to come together in confronting terrorism.

  EXPLOSIVES WIRED UP

  The siege began on September 1, 2004, at School Number One in Beslan, a Russian town in North Ossetia. The school was no stranger to political unrest, having served as a detention centre for the Muslim Ingush people during a period of civil war in 1992. At that time, the Ossetians had killed several of the Ingush. The Ingush were closely allied to the Chechnyans, by religion, culture and a history of oppression. Thus, the stage was already set for further conflict.

  In Russia, September 1 is traditionally celebrated as a ‘Day of Knowledge’ by children and their extended families. Parents and relatives often accompany their children to school to take part in a ceremony in which the younger children give flowers to the older children, and the older children take the younger ones into their classes. It was on this day in 2004, when the children and their families were enjoying this innocent ritual at School Number One, that a group of armed terrorists decided to strike.

  At 9.30 a.m., 32 terrorists invaded the school, disguising themselves with black masks and wearing belts loaded with explosives. The police were called, and a gun ba
ttle immediately broke out, causing terror and panic among the staff, children and relatives at the school. During the battle, five policemen were shot dead, while only one terrorist was killed. The nightmare continued as the terrorists herded 1,300 hostages into the school gym, many of them children. Then, in front of the terrified staff, children and families, the gunmen mined the gym with explosives, circling it with tripwire so that nobody could escape.

  BODIES IN THE PLAYGROUND

  About 50 hostages had managed to escape during the police shoot-out, but the others were now stuck in the gym, which was becoming hotter and hotter. Government security forces surrounded the school, but there was little they could do, since the gunmen were threatening to kill large numbers of the hostages should the soldiers attack. And their threats proved to have substance when, later that day, the terrorists killed 20 hostages (all of them men) and threw their bodies out onto the playground outside.

  Terrified of further reprisals, the Russian government agreed to veto any show of force and attempted to negotiate a peaceful end to the crisis. Leonid Roshal, a paediatrican who had helped to negotiate the release of children in the Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis, was called in to help. The United Nations Security Council was convened at Russia’s request, to see if any conclusion could be negotiated in this way. But these efforts proved fruitless: the terrorists would not allow medicines, food, or even water to be taken into the school for the hostages. In addition, they refused to let medical workers in to the school grounds to dispose of the bodies.

  RAPE AND MURDER

  Not only this, but the terrorists then began to abuse the children further. Many of them were by now sweltering in the heat and, becoming dehydrated through lack of drinking water, they took off their clothes. The terrorists then raped some of them, including adolescent girls, while their families were forced to listen to their screams ringing down the corridors of the school.

  After negotiations with Ingush leader Ruslan Aushev, the terrorists agreed to release 26 breastfeeding mothers and their babies. In one case, a baby was released on its own, because its mother did not want to leave her other children at the school to suffer at the hands of the terrorists. In other cases, mothers with babies were given no choice in the matter and forced to leave their older children behind at the school. Tragically, some of these older children were later killed.

  It was now becoming obvious that the government was dealing with terrorists who were cruel, barbaric and possibly insane. The terrorists now agreed to the removal of bodies by medical workers, but proceeded to shoot two medical workers dead when they entered the school. They also began to fire at the security personnel surrounding the school. A bomb then went off in the gymnasium, and a wall collapsed. In the chaos that ensued, dozens of hostages escaped, but others were killed in the shoot-out between the terrorists and the security forces.

  TANKS AND FLAME-THROWERS

  As mayhem broke out, local citizens joined in the fray, appearing at the school with guns and other weapons. The explosives that had been set up in the gymnasium began to detonate, and the building caught on fire. Meanwhile, the Russian army began to deploy tanks and flame-throwers against the terrorists, and a major battle took place. Many hostages were trapped inside the school, unable to escape; others were killed and wounded as the hostilities escalated. Fighting continued into the evening, until the majority of the terrorists were dead; one of them was reported to have been ambushed and beaten to death by angry parents as he was being taken to hospital.

  In the aftermath of the battle, the true extent of the damage was assessed, and it became clear that hundreds of hostages, both children and adults, had died during the siege. The Russian government came under criticism for attacking the school with heavy artillery while the hostages were still inside; they argued, however, that the main attack had not commenced until most of the hostages were safe. Be that as it may, an enormous number of innocent civilians, many of them children, had been killed; and also, there was a disturbingly high casualty rate among the security forces.

  ARAB OPERATIVES?

  After the siege was over, two days of national mourning took place. Thousands of people joined a rally organized by the government in Moscow, to protest at the scourge of terrorism. Yet there was still some confusion as to who, exactly, was behind the attack. A couple of weeks after the crisis, Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility for it; Magomet Yevloyev, an Ingush terrorist, was also suspected of involvement.

  On the face of it, the Beslan school siege was very similar to the Moscow Theatre Hostage Crisis and the Kizlyar Hospital Siege, both of which Basayev had been involved in. Yet some suggested that the terrorists in the Beslan incident were not Chechens, because they did not understand the Chechen language and asked to communicate in Russian. The Russian government believes that Arab al-Qaeda operatives were among the terrorists, but this claim is yet to be substantiated.

  LYNCH MOB

  The only person to be tried in a court of law for the crime was Nur-Pashi Kulayev. He was thought to be the only terrorist who had survived the siege (although Chechen warlord Basayev claimed that several more had escaped). Kulayev was a 24-year-old unemployed Chechen carpenter, whose brother Han-Pashi had once worked as a bodyguard for Basayev. Nur-Pashi had attempted to escape after the siege by posing as a hostage, but he was recognized by members of the crowd, who tried to beat him to death. Security forces eventually came to his rescue.

  Kulayev’s defence rested on the claim that he had been recruited by Chechen rebels to attack a military target and had no idea before the siege that he would be asked to take children in a school as hostages. He also claimed that he had not shot anyone during the siege and had saved the life of one young girl. However, there were reports that he had intimidated the hostages, running around with his gun and shouting curses at them. Eventually, he was convicted of committing an act of terrorism and murder, and given a sentence of life imprisonment.

  BRUTAL KILLER

  Whatever Kulayev’s true role, it is clear that he was not one of the major players in the drama. It is thought that, although he did not take part in the actual attack, the Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev organized and financed it. Basayev had claimed responsibility for this and numerous other horrific terror attacks in Russia and elsewhere, and was one of the world’s most wanted terrorists. On July 10, 2006, he finally met a fitting end, at the village of Ekazhevo, Ingushetia. As he rode along in a truck packed full of explosives, about to commit another terrorist attack, a bomb detonated, killing him instantly. His remains were identified by DNA analysis. The Russians claimed that their agents had planted the bomb, while Chechen rebels declared that the explosion was an accident. Whatever the truth of the matter, there were few who mourned the passing of such a brutal killer.

  Madrid Bombings

  The government’s position is one of caution, of prudence . . . After so many years of horror and terror [it] will be a long and difficult process.

  José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spanish prime minister

  The Madrid bombings of March 11, 2004, were the most destructive terrorist attacks ever to take place in Spain. The city’s complex commuter train system became the target of several co-ordinated bomb attacks, which killed a total of 192 people, and injured more than 2,000. The bombings took place three days before the Spanish general elections, prompting suspicions that it was the work of ETA, the terrorist Basque separatist organisation. The Spanish government under President Aznar immediately blamed the attacks on ETA, but it later became clear that Islamic militants from Morocco were behind the bombings. The Spanish people were so angry at the way the government had manipulated the situation that they voted Aznar out and a Socialist government took over, who condemned the war in Iraq and threatened to pull Spanish troops out of the conflict. Thus, the attack had immediate political effects in Spain and around the world, particularly because of its timing just before the national elections.

  A SCENE FROM HELL
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br />   The morning of March 11, 2004, was a busy one as usual in the Spanish capital, as thousands of people made their way to work in the morning rush hour. However, as a series of explosions ripped through the commuter railway system, everything came to a standstill. At the centre of the attack was Atocha, one of Madrid’s main train stations. Eyewitnesses told how pieces of train flew into the air, and how bodies could be seen trapped in the wreckage of twisted iron. There were huge holes in the train carriages where the bombs had blasted through them. Dead bodies lay on the railway line while the walking wounded, covered in blood, stepped over them to safety. There were clouds of smoke and an acrid smell of burning plastic everywhere. People were screaming and crying in shock as they witnessed horrific injuries and saw people die in front of them. As one commentator remarked: ‘It was a scene from from hell.’

  When the dust settled, what had happened began to become clear. At just after 6.30 a.m., four bombs had exploded on a train entering Atocha station, killing and injuring dozens of people. Three explosions on a train standing inside the station had killed further commuters. Only 15 minutes later, at El Pozo station, two explosions caused further death and destructions, and a minute after that, an explosion at Santa Eugenia Station killed more people. Not only that, but well over 1,000 people in total were injured by the blasts. Later, three more unexploded bombs were found, hidden in backpacks, and were safely detonated by police from bomb disposal units.