By MAAMOUN YOUSSEF ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER Thursday, August 26, 2004 · Last updated 11:28 p.m. PT
CAIRO, Egypt -- A claim of responsibility for the downing of two Russian planes appeared on a Web site known for militant Muslim comment Friday.
The statement, which accused Russians of killing Muslims in Chechnya, was signed "the Islambouli Brigades." A group with a similar name has claimed at least one previous attack, but the legitimacy of the group and the authenticity of such statements could not be verified.
Russian officials have said terrorism was the most likely cause of Tuesday's plane crashes, which killed 89 people.
"We in the Islambouli Brigades announce that our holy warriors managed to hijack two Russian planes and were crowned with success though they faced problems at the beginning," the statement said without elaborating on the problems.
Friday's statement said five mujahedeen (Islamic fighters) were on board each plane and their wills will be published soon.
The statement did not explain how the hijackers boarded the planes, how they downed them or give any other details.
"Russia's slaughtering of Muslims is continuing and will only stop when a bloody war is launched," the statement said. "Our mujahedeen, with God's grace, succeeded in directing the first blow, which will be followed by a series of other operations in a wave of to extend support and victory to our Muslim brothers in Chechnya and other Muslim areas which suffer from Russian faithlessness."
A July 31 Web statement signed the "Islambouli Brigades of al-Qaida" claimed responsibility for the attempt to assassinate Shaukat Aziz, Pakistan's prime minister-designate. Friday's claim did not refer to al-Qaida, the international terror network led by Osama bin Laden.
Lt. Khaled Islambouli was the leader of the group of soldiers who assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat during a military parade in Cairo in 1981.
MOSCOW (AP) - The Federal Security Service said Friday that traces of explosives have been found in the wreckage of one of two airliners that crashed nearly simultaneously, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency.
A spokesman for the agency, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, declined comment to The Associated Press.
The report came several hours after a Web site known for militant Muslim published a claim of responsibility for the crashes of two Russian airliners, connecting the action to Russia's fight against separatists in Chechnya.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
How much weight do you put in idea the Chechens were targeting Putin? How much Muslim support do you think the Chechens have for this kind of action outside of Chechnya? If there is wide support for actions like this outside the Chechnya region this escalates the war or terror in a new way.
Or Chechen militants could have been involved and somehow got on board with explosives. But that doesn’t explain why the planes or at least the one exploded before it reached Sochi, where Putin was vacationing, as this does seem it could have been an assassination attempt. The Chechen militants were forced to explode their devices early or they were shot down by Russian defense or My Pet Goat is not as riveting in Russian. #msg-3910901
-Rion
Civilian airplanes shut down by air-defense missiles
This is the most likely version of the plane crashes that happened August 25. The southern direction of flights from Moscow (especially towards Sochi, Southern Russia) is the air route that Putin often uses. Also, there are increased security measures used for the Ruler of Russia.
After the events of September 11, 2001, the US publicly announced that civilian airplanes will be shut down in the US airspace on suspicion of being hijacked.
There is no doubt that similar decision was adopted by the Kremlin as well. But in the conditions when the country is run by the KGB/FSB, such decisions are never made public. This is a state secret. This is why none of the journalists took a risk to express this most likely version of the deaths of 90 passengers of two airliners. At best, such journalists would have lost their jobs.
Even though the officials are avoiding to directly accuse Chechen militants of involvement in these plane crashes, demonstrative measures of 'tightened security' in airports are still supposed to direct the public opinion towards the 'Chechen trace' in order to divert the people’s attention from who the real culprits of the people’s deaths are.
These are the facts that speak in favor of the version that the planes were shot down by Russian air defense system. The eyewitnesses heard an explosion up in the sky. And consequently, the fragments of the airplanes were scattered across large areas. Furthermore, unprecedented security measures caused by the ongoing Russian-Chechen war virtually rule out any chances of ammunition or armed attackers getting on an airplane. The altitude of the air route of 10 kilometers high is beyond the reach of any handheld rocket launcher, which could be used by fighters of any national liberation movement of the North Caucasus.
All the rest of the official versions, brought up by the 'authorities', such as: poor-quality fuel, engine failures, etc. – make no sense whatsoever. For the altitude (and the time of the fall, accordingly) would have allowed the crew to report to the air traffic controller about any incidents that were happening on board the plane.
In the conditions of the total hysteria caused by the myth about so-called 'international terrorism', imposed by the official propaganda, the military are probably allowed to conduct a 'pre-emptive strike' in case a plane gets hijacked. Failure of emergency notification system about hijacking could have caused an air-defense missile to be automatically launched and to hit a locked-in target. In Russia we all are living at somebody’s gunpoint.
We are unlikely to get the truth about the real reasons of the disaster. Or we may find out the truth by accident, under the circumstances that do not depend on the state. We all remember how thoroughly the witnesses of the Moscow theater siege events (2002) were being physically removed, and we all can remember how FSB/KGB was getting in the way of independent investigation of the blasts of apartment buildings when the Second Russian-Chechen War started.
Many people in Moscow were suspicious about the sudden death of Member of Russian Parliament (Russian State Duma) Shchekochikhin, one of the initiators, who was heading that investigation.
Is it any wonder that foreigners were not allowed to rescue the crew of the Kursk nuclear submarine?
It was more of a surprise that no 'Chechen trace' was discovered in the wreck of the Kursk submarine. However, we all can remember how Putin discovered that very 'trace' in New York City on September 11, 2001.
But for some reason Mr. Bush shunned such a 'gift'. Apparently, he did not want to be looking that stupid in the eyes of his voters.
Mikhas Kukobaka, dissident and human rights activists, Moscow, Russia.
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