November 23, 2004

Terrorist Attack Averted in Russia

A large scale attack terrorist attack has been averted in the Russian province of Ingushetia. Ingushetia neighbors Chechnya and is largely Muslim. Just yesterday Russian forces arrested a top al-Qaeda linked terrorist. Russia is fast becoming one of our closest allies in the GWOT. Why? Because it is in their interest to do so. They stand at the front line between the West and Islamic civilization. Thanks to Jeff Quinton for e-mailing me this Russian Info article:

A large-scale terrorist attack was averted in Ingushetia, a republic neighboring Chechnya. The attack was ordered by Chechen separatist leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov, spokesman for the North Caucasus antiterrorism headquarters Ilya Shabalkin said Tuesday.

"Operatives from the republic's FSB and Interior Ministry obtained information that terrorists under Maskhadov and Basayev's command were preparing a new large terrorist attack in Ingushetia," Mr. Shabalkin said.

He said that according to the plan, during a provocation, bandits wearing Russian solider uniforms would attack several public buildings and apartment houses with 120mm mortar and several large-caliber machine guns.

"The republic's law enforcement agencies conducted a series of search operations," he said, "and found a cache of weapons to be used in the terrorist attack in a forest in the Malgobek district."

A 120mm mortar, 74 120mm mortar shells, 35 antitank mines, four barrels for a 14.5mm machine gun modified for single round firing, and more than 8,000 14.5mm cartridges were removed from the cache.

An operations and investigation group is currently searching for the militants who were preparing the attack, he said.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 08:14 AM | |