Obscure Chechen group takes responsibility; two women bought tickets at last minute, bodies unclaimed

The Russian government has confirmed what everyone else either suspected or knew: terrorists were responsible for the near simultaneous crashes of two Russian airliners on Friday.

An obscure group calling themselves the "Islambouli Brigades" published a statement on Saturday on the web taking responsibility for the crashes, claiming that they were retaliation for the ongoing Russia-Chechnya war and warning that more attacks are on the way. "Russia's slaughtering of Muslims is continuing and will only stop when a bloody war is launched," the statement said. The group claimed that five members of their group were aboard each plane, but so far, the facts do not seem to support the statement.

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) investigators examining the wrecks of the two aircraft found traces of the explosive "hexogen." According to Russian authorities, this is the same explosive that was used in the 1999 apartment building bombings that were also tied to Chechen rebels. Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has denied responsibility for the crashes through spokespersons.

The FSB has also disclosed that two women with Chechen-sounding names, Amanta Nagayeva and S. Dzhebirkhanova, individually bought tickets at the last minute for the flights, and that both women's bodies are the only ones that have not been claimed by family members. Nagayeva, a Chechen native, had bought her ticket about an hour before her flight departed, and was seated at the rear of the Tu-154 airliner. That portion of the aircraft was severed from the fuselage.

Dzhebirkhanova was supposed to fly to the Black Sea resort of Sochi, where President Putin was vacationing at the time. However, she changed her flight at the last minute to the other Tu-134 that crashed.

FSB spokesman Nikolai Zakharov said investigators had "defined a circle of individuals possibly involved in conducting the terrorist act," but did not expand on the statement. President Vladimir Putin, however, had nothing to say on the news of the discovery of explosives traces, most likely because of the loss of prestige that this terrorist attack has caused for his government. One major newspaper has already called the attack Russia's September 11.

Finally, Russian news media have disclosed that six drunk holiday fliers were denied boarding on one of the flights that crash, and are alive today because of that. Six young men were scheduled to travel on the Sibir Airlines Tu-154 that crashed near Rostov-on-Don. The airline refused to allow them to board because they appeared to be drunk.

FMI: www.fsb.ru (Russian Federal Security Service official web site, in Russian), http://babelfish.altavista.com (Altavista web page translation service, Russian to English available)