The hostage takers

The hostage takers were Islamist rebels belonging to Shamil Basayev’s Rijadus-Salichin unit. Basayev, the most wanted man in Russia, later admitted to the Beslan hostage taking and also claimed responsibility for further acts of terror.

This was not the first terror attack connected to the Chechen conflict. In October 2002 hostage takers held 800 people in the Dubrovka theatre in Moscow. Conspicuous amongst the attackers were many women who had lost their husbands in the Chechen war, so-called ‘black widows’. Many of the attackers had attached explosives to their bodies. The hostages were only freed after a controversial assault using gas. Most of the terrorists died during this release, as well as 129 hostages.

There had already been previous attacks. Ten people died in an attack on a Moscow metro station and suicide bombers exploded two passenger aircraft, killing 89.

The terror continued in December 2002 when 70 people died after a government building in Grozny was blown up. In May 2003 60 people were killed in an explosives attack in Znamenskoye, north Chechnya.