Terror Attacks and Active Shooter Events Thread

[LoooSeR]

 

[LoooSeR]

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In eastern Germany, in the city of Halle, an armed man attacked a synagogue. 2 people were killed. He was later captured by the police. It is also reported that he fired at the shawarma shop. Police are looking for alleged accomplices.

 

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Metropolitan investigators arrested several criminals for their financial support of terrorist organisations.

 

[LoooSeR]

   And now about more controversial terror attacks in Russia - Nord Ost/Theatre on Dubrovka in 2002 mass hostage situation.

 

   Summary:

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   The terrorist act on Dubrovka is the hostage-taking on Dubrovka in Moscow, which began on October 23 and continued through October 26, 2002, during which a group of armed Chechen terrorists led by Movsar Baraev captured and held hostages in the building of the Theater Center. Amongst hostages there were workers of the theatre, spectators and cast of the musical “Nord -Ost".

   On October 23, 3 minibuses with armed militants drove up to the building of the Theater Center. Abubakar's main group seized the concert hall and took 916 people hostage.

   As a result of the operation to free the hostages, all the terrorists who were in the building at that time were killed and most of the hostages were released. In total, according to official figures, 130 people from the number of hostages died (according to the "Nord-Ost" public organization, 174 people died).

 

   Planning of this attack

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   In the summer of 2002, a meeting was held at the headquarters of Aslan Maskhadov on the territory of Chechnya at which it was decided to hold a major terrorist attacks in Moscow with hostage taking, similar to the capture of a hospital in Budennovsk in 1995. The direct organizer of the action was Ruslan Elmurzaev, known as "Abubakar" - the head of the economic security service and the actual owner of "Prima" Bank, his assistant - Aslanbek Khaskhanov. The commander of the terrorist group was appointed nephew of Arbi Baraev, who was killed in 2001, one of the leaders of the Islamic Special Purpose Regiment Movsar Baraev.

 

   in order to divert the attention of special services from Movsar Barayev, his group did not take any armed actions against the federal forces, a disinformation campaign was also launched, during which it was stated that he was seriously wounded and went to Azerbaijan for treatment or died as a result of hostilities. The result of this misinformation was a statement on October 12 by Boris Podoprigora, deputy commander of the United Group of Forces in Chechnya, on the liquidation of Movsar Barayev on October 10 in the area of the village of Komsomolskoye as a result of missile and bomb attacks.

 

   During preparation for the terrorist action, the form of the action was determined - the seizure of several hundred hostages in a separate building during a cultural event and the explosion of cars filled with explosives in crowded civilian areas. About 50 armed militants were to take part in the capture, half of which were to be female suicide bombers. On behalf of Shamil Basayev, responsible for the recruitment of women in the death row squad, their accommodation, as well as for the choice of the place for the attack, Yasir (Misi) Vitaliev was appointed. Ruslan Elmurzaev and Aslanbek Khaskhanov were responsible for the delivery of weapons and terrorists to Moscow, as well as their deployment and movement around the city. The action was scheduled for November 7, 2002 - Day of consent and reconciliation.

 

   Weapons

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   The delivery of weapons to Moscow began almost immediately after the decision to carry out the attack was made. Most of the weapons were transported in KamAZ under apples, but the truck broke down on the way. It was not possible to load weapons into another truck, so Elmurzaev gave the command to transport the weapon in the luggage carriers of the Lada cars, covering the load with apples. The load of weapons totaled 18 Kalashnikovs; 20 Makarov and Stechkin pistols; several hundred kilograms of explosives; more than 100 grenades. Weapons and explosives were delivered to the village of Chernoye in the Balashikha district near Moscow, where Khampash Sobraliev had been living in house No. 100 since April 2002. Part of explosves went into the manufacture of 25 explosive devices for suicide bombers.

 

   Ruslan Elmurzaev in August 2002 took two loans from "Prima" Bank for a total of about 40 thousand US dollars. The bulk of them went to the purchase of two used Ford Transit and Volkswagen Caravel minibuses. Also in August, Elmurzaev and Khaskhanov, in the vicinity of the Pushkinskaya metro station, met with Akhyad Mezhiev, who was living in Moscow since 1994, who was recruited by them in February 2002 in Ingushetia. At the meeting, Mezhiev was instructed to purchase two VAZ-2106 and VAZ-2108 cars and mobile phones through private announcements. Also, at the request of Aslanbek Akhyad, together with his brother Alikhan, they rented a garage on Ogorodny passage, 20A. Later, a warehouse of weapons and explosives was arranged here.

 

   In early October, 3 explosive devices delivered in Chechnya made out of 152-mm artillery shells and camouflaged in air balloons of the KamAZ brake system, they were delivered from Ingushetia to Moscow on KamAZ loaded with watermelons. For conspiracy, the truck made a stop at the intersection of the Moscow Ring Road and Varshavskoye highway, where at night the “air cylinders” were removed from the truck and loaded onto Mezhiev’s VAZ-2109 car, which delivered them to the garage on Akademik Pilyugin Street.

 

   Ruslan Elmurzaev aka Abu-Bakar.

 

 

   Terrorists

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   21 men and about 20 women were selected to carry out the attack. Ages ranged from 16 to 42 years; the majority were from 20 to 23. To provide females with housing, Yasir Vitaliev, using a fake passport in the name of Khava Erbiev, through the real estate agency Kalita-Grad, entered into a lease agreement for three apartments for October at the following addresses: Vorontsovskaya street, 22; Festivalnaya street, house 15; Elevatornaya street, house 4, building 1. In the same way, apartments were selected for the male part of the terrorist group. Elmurzaev used an apartment on Elevator Street for living. Movsar Baraev, using a forged passport in the name of Shamilkhazhi Akhmatkhanov, got an apartment on 30 Veernaya Street, building 2.

 

   Gang members arrived in the capital at different times in small groups and in a variety of ways, but most of them arrived by bus Khasavyurt - Moscow a few days before the capture. Some females flew to the scene of the future terrorist attack on a plane from Ingushetia. Movsar Barayev, the leader of the bandit group, arrived at the Kazan station in Moscow on October 14, 2002, by train No. 3, accompanied by two militants - Alkhazurov and Battaev.

 

   Upon arrival, gang members dispersed into apartments of 4-5 people each. Arms, ammunition and explosives, some of which were stored on Ogorodny passage, and some in the village of Chernoye, were also dispersed across several apartments in Moscow.

 

   Place of terrorist attack

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   Choosing the place of the terrorist attack, the organizers of the seizure set as their main goal unhindered control over as many people as possible in one volume. For this, concert halls and theaters were best suited. After a long selection, the terrorists stopped at three points: the Moscow Youth Palace, the Theater Center on Dubrovka, where the musical “Nord-Ost” was on, and the Moscow State Variety Theater with the musical “Chicago”. Yasir Vitaliev, under the guise of a lover of musicals, together with an male or female accomplice walked with a video camera in all these places. Their task was to scout the security system, the location of the internal premises, and approaches to the building. After the meeting, Elmurzaev decided to organize hostage-taking in the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka, which was located near the center of Moscow, had a large auditorium and a small number of secondary rooms.

 

   Terrorist attacks before mass hostage situation - explosion near McDonald's on October 19 and suicide bombers attempts to attack public places

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   Aslanbek Khaskhanov was responsible for organizing the explosions of mined cars. To carry out a terrorist attack, a partition was placed in gas tanks at one of the technical centers for car repair, which divided the tank into two parts - gasoline was poured into one so that the car could be operated normally, and explosives were laid in the second half. When the machines were prepared, it was decided that explosions should take place first, and then the theater center was to be captured. On October 18, they held the last general meeting of participants at Elmurzayev’s apartment. Places for terrorist attacks were selected:

• Tchaikovsky Concert Hall - VAZ-2108, acquired in August-September by Akhyad Mezhiev.
• The State Duma - VAZ-2106, acquired in August-September by Akhyad Mezhiev.
• Restaurant "McDonald's" on Pokryshkina street - "Tavria", acquired, according to some sources, by the same Mezhiev.

   On the same day, October 18, 2002, Aslan Maskhadov gave an interview to the France-Press Agency, in which he announced the intensification of his ties with the most extremist leaders of Chechen terrorists. Answering agency questions, Maskhadov explained the radicalization of his position by the West’s refusal to support it. “Western leaders are forced to flirt with Russia to resolve their global problems, such as the Balkans, Afghanistan, Georgia, and now Iraq,” he said. “Now that the war is going on, I have nothing to lose from the fact that I associate with people like Basayev, Udugov or Yandarbiev - the main radical leaders,” Maskhadov emphasized. At the same time, he announced a certain “operation” being prepared by the separatists, but he refused to disclose any details.

 

   For the terrorist attack near McDonald’s, an explosive device was used, made on the basis of a 152-mm artillery shell, reinforced with balls, rollers, pieces of wire, wound with electrical tape and equipped with a clockwork. The time of the explosion was scheduled for 19:00 on October 19, when the restaurant was filled with a large number of people who came here after the end of the working day. However, for an unknown reason, the bomb mechanism worked earlier, and at 13:10 Tavria exploded, killing a 17-year-old teenager.

 

   Two other mined cars did not explode for unknown reasons and simply did not work at the scheduled time. The next day, Khaskhanov drove both cars to Zvenigorodskaya Street, having previously taken from them explosive devices converted into KamAZ air receivers. Cars were discovered by operatives in January 2003. Khaskhanov himself left Moscow on October 20 and fled to Ingushetia.

 

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   A few hours before the capture of the Theater Center, Abubakar (Ruslan Elmurzaev) met with Mezhiev at the Crystal Casino near the theater center on Dubrovka, arriving at a meeting on the red Ford Transit, which was later used to deliver terrorists to the recreation center.

 

   Elmurzaev ordered Mezhiev to take the female suicide bombers to a crowded place so that they would blow themselves up and thereby distract the attention of law enforcement agencies from the seizure of the recreation center of the Moscow School of Chemistry. Mezhiev put them in a car and started circling the city, choosing a crowded place to carry out the terrorist attack. Having decided to land suicide bombers near the Pyramida cafe on Pushkinskaya Square, Mezhiev learned on the radio about the seizure of the center on Dubrovka and, frightened, went home with the females. On October 24, Abubakar called Akhyad Mezhiev from a captured theatre and demanded an explanation. Mezhiev explained that it was impossible to organize a terrorist attack, since there were too many police on the streets, and suggested sending the suicide bombers home. October 25, he bought them tickets and put on the train Moscow - Nazran.

 

   Start

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   After the explosion at McDonald’s, due to increased police and intelligence services activity, it was decided to postpone the date of the hostage-taking from November 7 to October 23. On this day at 19:00 a general gathering of the group in full readiness was held next to the parking of international buses in Luzhniki. The blue Ford Transit, the red Volkswagen Caravel and the white Dodge Ram 250 already stood on the square. An hour later, the terrorists plunged into minibuses and drove towards the center on Dubrovka.

 

   Main entrance in the center of the pic, showed with black. Garages to the right, gay-club is left upper corner of this building and theatre main hall is on the right, low right - recreation health center building.

 

   October 23, 2002

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   On Wednesday, 21:05 Moscow time, three minibuses drove up to the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka at 7 Melnikova Street (formerly the Palace of Culture of the State Bearing Plant), from which armed people jumped out and ran in to the building of the recreation center. Having neutralized 4-5 security guards armed with stun guns, the main part of the group burst into the concert hall, where at that time the first scene of the second act of the musical “Nord-Ost” ended and there were more than 800 people. The rest of the terrorists began to check other premises of the theater center, driving into the main hall the staff and actors of the musical and other citizens who were in the building of the House of Culture, including about 30 people - students of the "Iridan" School of Irish Dance, who conducted rehearsal.

 

   On the stage, where at that time there were eight artists dressed in military uniform of the 1940s model, a man armed with an assault rifle came out and ordered the actors to descend from the stage to the hall. In confirmation of the seriousness of his words, he fired several shots up. Terrorists declared all people - spectators and theater workers - hostages, but did not put forward their demands. They scattered around the hall and began to mine it. Some viewers were allowed to call their relatives on mobile phones, to inform about their hostage-taking and that for every killed or wounded militant, 10 people from among the hostages would be shot dead. In the first minutes of the capture, some actors and employees of the Theater Center managed to lock themselves in rooms or leave the building through windows and emergency exits.

   The hostages gathered in the hall were left without food and water for a long time (some of terrorists brought them the mineral water found in the buffet)

 

22.00 Reinforced police detachments, riot police and special police officers, as well as the leadership of the capital’s police department are gathering at the center’s building on Dubrovka. Also, journalists from Channel One, the Rossiya TV channel, NTV, TVS, REN-TV television companies are arriving at the building. The President of Russia Vladimir Putin was immediately notified of the incident. There is information that the theater building was captured by a detachment of Chechen fighters led by Movsar Barayev, there are women among the terrorists. The attackers (calling themselves "suicide bombers from the 29th division") declare that they have no complaints against foreign citizens who are held hostage (about 75 people from 14 countries, including Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Great Britain and the USA), and promise to free them. Passport verification begins. Musical artists are placed on the balcony. In the center of the hall and on the balcony are two metal cylinders - receivers from KamAZ. Inside each is a 152-mm artillery high-explosive fragmentation shell lined with additional explosives.

   Lieutenant Colonel K.I. Vasiliev, in uniform, with an official ID on his own, went through the cordon and, entering the building, entered into negotiations with terrorists, offering himself in exchange for the freedom of hostage children. The militants did not believe that he had come to offer himself as a hostage for others, and shot him. On October 26, 2002, after the assault on the theater center, Vasiliev’s body with six bullet wounds was found in the basement.

 

23.05 Five actors manage to escape from the building, who locked themselves in the dressing rooms during the capture; they went down the bound curtains from the window. Half an hour later, another 7 people from the technical group, hiding in the assembly room, escaped the building.

 

23:30 Military equipment and armored vehicles is being pulled up to the building, at the same time 7 members of the musical technical group who managed to close in the editing room manage to escape from it

 

0.00 Terrorists release 15 children.

 

 

   HQ building is left upper corner of blocked area. Checkpoints with APCs are also showed.

 

Spoiler

 

 

   October 24, 2002

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00:00 - The building of the Theater Center on Melnikova Street is completely blocked, investigators are trying to get in contact with the terrorists who seized the building. Terrorists release 15 children and several dozens more, including women, foreigners and Muslims.

 

00:30 - During the negotiations, the terrorists demand the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya.

 

02:00 - Aslambek Aslakhanov, deputy of the State Duma from Chechnya, is negotiating with the leader of the terrorists who are holding hostages in the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka, but after a short conversation the connection is interrupted - no agreements were reached.

 

03:50 - Terrorists release two school-aged children.

 

05:30 - 26-year-old Olga Romanova (05/13/1976 - 10/24/2002), who worked as a saleswoman at a nearby perfume shop, was not stopped by police, enters the hall and enters into a skirmish with Movsar Barayev. She is quickly interrogated, taken to the corridor and killed with three gunshots.

 

07:30 - Foreign diplomats begin to approach the theatre building.

 

08:00 - As of 8:00, 41 people were released by the terrorists.

 

10:20-12:50 - Terrorists demand the arrival of representatives of the Red Cross and the organization Doctors Without Borders to negotiate, provided that there are no Russians among the representatives of these organizations. A little later, additional demands were put forward on the mandatory participation in the negotiations of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, politicians Boris Nemtsov, Irina Khakamada and Grigory Yavlinsky.

 

13:16 - State Duma deputy Joseph Kobzon, British journalist Mark Franchetti and two Swiss citizens - representatives of the Red Cross organization, are entering the Theater Center building. Half an hour later, Joseph Kobzon takes Lyubov Kornilova and three children out of the building: her two daughters and one child, whom she also called her, Marc Franchetti leaves with them. Then two Red Cross employees go out and take an elderly man, a British citizen, from the building by hands.

 

15:35 - Joseph Kobzon and Vice-Speaker of the State Duma Irina Khakamada enter the building of the House of Culture. During negotiations with them, terrorists declare their readiness to release 50 hostages if the head of the Chechen administration Akhmat Kadyrov arrives at them. After half an hour, the negotiators leave the building of the recreation center.

 

17:00 - The head of the Department of Emergency Surgery and Pediatric Injury Research Institute of Pediatrics, Scientific Center for Child Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Leonid Roshal and the Jordanian doctor, assistant professor of surgery at the Sechenov Academy Anvar El-Said enter the building of the House of Culture. After 15 minutes, they carry out the body of the murdered Olga Romanova. Having handed over the body to the ambulance staff, they return to the building of the Theater Center.

 

18:31 - During the trip to the toilet, two womens - Elena Zinovieva and Svetlana Kononova - get out of the window into the street and run. Terrorists unsuccessfully shoot them after with machine guns and twice from a underbarrel grenade launcher, injuring Major Konstantin Zhuravlev, a fighter of the Alpha group, who was covering up the hostages.

 

19:00 - Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera shows the appeal of the gunman Movsar Barayev, recorded a few days before the capture of the recreation center. In the video shown, Movsar Barayev, sitting in an apartment in front of a laptop, claims that his group belongs to the "sabotage and reconnaissance brigade of righteous martyrs" and demands the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. The video also recorded five women dressed in black cloaks "Abaya" and the veil.

 

21:30 - According to updated data, 39 people have been released since terrorists took hostages.

 

23:05 - State Duma deputy Grigory Yavlinsky enters the building of the Theater Center and conducts 50-minute negotiations with terrorists.

 

23:15 - Leonid Roshal and Anwar El-Said leave the building

 

 

 

Spoiler

   Nemtsov and Kobzon

 

 

 

   October 25, 2002

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01:30 - Leonid Roshal enters the building, carrying two boxes of medicines (for the balcony and stalls) and a bag of hygiene products that the terrorists allowed to bring for the hostages. NTV correspondent Sergei Dedukh and cameraman Anton Peredelsky enter the building with him. They stay in the building for about 40 minutes, during which they manage to talk with terrorists and six hostages.

 

02:00 - Leonid Roshal leaves the building.

 

05: 30–06: 30 - Terrorists release a total of seven people - first, a pregnant hostage, Oksana Ignatovskaya, six hours later.

 

08:00 - In the building of the Theater Center there is a breakthrough of the heating tubes, which floods the lower floors of the building with hot water. Terrorists regard this as “a provocation”, but the official representative of the headquarters for the release of the hostages refutes this assumption.

 

12:34 - Representatives of the “Red Cross” take eight children aged 6 to 12 years out of a building seized by terrorists.

 

14:50 - Leonid Roshal and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya enter the building of the captured House of Culture, they carry three large bags of water and personal hygiene items to the hostages.

 

15:30 - In the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin is holding a meeting with the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, as well as with leaders of the Duma associations. Director of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev states that the authorities are ready to save the lives of terrorists if they release all the hostages.

 

17: 00-20: 20 - Sergey Govorukhin (son of movie director Stanislav Govorukhin), deputy editor-in-chief of Literary Newspaper Dmitry Belovetsky, State Duma deputy Aslambek Aslakhanov, head of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry come to the Theater Center in turn Primakov, the former president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, two employees of the Red Cross. They deliver hostages water and juices. Through Sergei Govorukhin, terrorists transmit that they refuse to conduct further negotiations. Alla Pugacheva (known singer) is also trying to establish contact with terrorists.

 

21:50 - Terrorists release 4 more people - citizens of Azerbaijan, three women and a man.

 

23:22 - Through the cordon to the building of the Palace of Culture, Gennady Vlakh burst through, who had a mistaken suspicion that his son Roman was held hostage. Terrorists detain him and after a while shoot him.

 

On October 25, in a telephone interview with the Azerbaijani newspaper Zerkalo, one of the terrorists who held hostages on Dubrovka stated that Maskhadov was involved in the preparation of the attack.

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Relatives of hostages

 

 

 

   October 26, 2002

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00:30–02:00 - One of the hostages falls into hysteria and rushes with a bottle at a terrorist who is next to an explosive device. The militants open fire on him from machine guns, they hit two other hostages - Tamara Starkova (in the stomach) and Pavel Zakharov (in the head). Terrorists are allowed to take the wounded hostages to the first floor and call the ambulance staff (the ambulance arrives after 40 minutes) who take the wounded to the hospital. Later, Pavel Zakharov died in the hospital.

 

   Assault.

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   5:10. The searchlights that illuminated the main entrance to the theater went out. Earlier, terrorists warned that if the light was extinguished, they would start shooting hostages. The besiegers through the ventilation began to pump sleep gas into the building. The people inside the building - militants and hostages - at first mistook the gas for smoke from a fire, but soon realized that it wasn’t

 

5:30  Three explosions and several automatic fire bursts are heard. After that, the shooting stops. Unconfirmed information is received about the beginning of the operation to storm the building. The hostages report a gas being fired in the building.

 

5:45 Representatives of the headquarters report that in the past two hours, terrorists killed two and injured two more hostages.

 

6:20 A few more explosions are heard, the shooting resumes. The building of the recreation center was successfully abandoned by two hostages.

 

6:30 FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko reports that the Theater Center is under the control of special services, Movsar Baraev and most of the terrorists have been destroyed. No hostage casualties reported

 

   Scheme of attack - through gay club on the left upper corner of the picture through a wall (breach charge was used) and through main entrance.

 

   Inside. Barrels show IED made from 152 mm artillery rounds inside of gas ballons. Black figures in viewers seats - suicide bombers. Several mines are also showed on this schematic.

 

   Operation itself - planning and execution:

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   The situation was extremely difficult - thousand hostages, hundreds of kilograms of explosives and an enclosed space in which maneuvering even during exercises would not be easy.

   Arriving at the place of the groups A and V, which consisted not only of duty officers, but also of those who were supposed to be on vacation or were on business trips, received from the heads of the operational headquarters the first order - to equip themselves and conduct recon.

 

   “It was important to assess the degree of threat to the lives of the hostages and simultaneously begin to study all the ways of penetrating the building. All possible documents were raised - from ventilation schemes to underground utilities, to which several groups switched almost immediately ”

 

   “On the first night after the hostage-taking, three colonels: Alexander Vladimirovich, Sergey Vladimirovich and I, entered the roof of the complex and began reconnaissance. And journalists, including from the roofs of neighboring buildings, began to broadcast the picture, saying that Alpha advanced and is preparing for the assault, etc.

   Television was broadcast to all of Mother Russia in all programs. The terrorists saw this and reported that if we do not get down from the roof, then every tenth hostage will be shot. I had to leave the roof quickly, although we wanted to see if it was possible to storm from above. But the journalists thwarted these plans, and I experienced it in my own skin.

   And the fact that they had accomplices around the theater center, I will say this: they were very serious guys, so I do not exclude the possibility of direct accomplices. "

 

   Exploration through underground communications and the installation of sensitive microphones through the roof almost immediately gave the first results. Not only the exact number of militants, but also the routes of their movement indoors became known - invaluable information for specialists in planning an assault operation. Along with the “underground” groups, “external” surveillance experts worked - through the roof, walls and utility rooms, information was collected not only about armed militants, but also about female suicide bombers and a central improvised explosive device that could collapse roof of the building inside.

 

   In addition to a large number of small arms, army equipment, which included not only hand grenades, but also anti-personnel mines, the militants managed to deliver 150 kilograms of explosives to the center of the capital, collected both in suicide bombers with bearings, bolts and self-tapping screws, and in two large improvised explosive devices assembled from artillery shells and hidden in the body of gas cylinders. By the end of the second day of the seizure, it became obvious that if decisive action was not taken to free the hostages, the militants would not only use small arms, but would also detonate the main explosives mounted directly in the auditorium.

 

   “The difficulty in solving the situation was that there were several explosive devices in the hall. When the possible damage from their detonation was calculated, it became clear that the roof and walls could collapse, collapse inside and bury the people sitting there ”

 

   Another problem, according to former FSB officers, was the dispersal of militants across the theater center. Special forces officers note that several people in the hall had access to control of explosive devices, and during the assault the delay in the actions of special forces would allow terrorists to close the detonator circuit. In such an environment, it was necessary not only to simultaneously enter the building from several directions, but also to determine the most convenient and fast “entry points” in general. In this training at the second facility, the Meridian House of Culture, built on a similar project, helped. It was there - not far from the Kaluzhskaya metro station - that anti-terror specialists practiced the assault on the building from day one.

 

   “Through the plan, places were identified where holes could be accurately made. Through them one could get almost directly into the auditorium, but the combat mission did not become easier from this. There were still too many militants. "

 

   It was decided to storm the building simultaneously from two directions. The first vector of advancement is the auditorium, where it was necessary to eliminate the militants who "held their finger on the button" of the IEDs. To eliminate the priority targets, highly experienced employees with silent VSS rifles and Val assault rifles were selected. Each of the snipers was assigned not only the firing sector, but also a specific target, for the destruction of which even a specific place, row and special signs were indicated. As noted by security officers, only two to three seconds were allotted to defeat targets after entering the stage. The second direction for the assault is the main entrance, a quick break through which was supposed to develop into a cleaning of office premises and preparation of ways for evacuating civilians. The particular difficulty of this task was due to the fact that after the start of the assault, the militants would immediately move into the corridors to repel the attack.

 

   “We penetrated the building from several sides. The television picture, of course, showed only the central part - the main entrance, but there were several battle groups, including from the side entrance ”

   “The lion's share of the preparatory work is the removal of small IEDs and additional exploration, because the storming of the building did not begin from the street, but practically from the depths of the building, where it was necessary to get secretly first”

 

At 6 o’clock in the morning - an hour after supplying the sleeping gas through ventilation - the special forces receive the command: "Assault!"

 

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   After that several dozen people, armed with special and silent weapons, rushed from the adjacent premises into the interior of the building, the count went by seconds.

 

   “Mostly they worked with silent weapons, pointwise. Of course, there was no shooting, as in the films. Single shots to neutralize the enemy as quickly and quietly as possible, short inspection, then again movement ”

 

   Terrorists outside of main hall provided resistance.

   “They shot back from everything that they brought with them. While we were moving along the corridors, three or four were let out of the store for us, this is the minimum. A couple of grenades were also thrown. There were no two hundredths, but the senior group got some scratches”

 

   The time spent by the Alpha and Vympel fighters on the assault differs markedly depending on the source of information. Some reported that the assault took half an hour, others wrote about 15 minutes. Participants in the events recall that the elimination of the militants at the approaches and directly in the auditorium by two groups of special forces took no more than five minutes. It took another 10 minutes to finish off those who locked themselves in the office premises and actively fired back. The group that got to the stage first through an hole punched in the wall in advance got an extremely difficult task: eliminating suicide bombers with belts clogged with explosives.

 

   “All the militants who were in the hall at that moment were eliminated by sniper fire from silent weapons. They shot for sure - belts with a kilogram of explosives could detonate if they were hit in the body, so they aimed at the head"

 

   After the operation, mountains of weapons were assembled in the Theater Complex on Dubrovka: 120 kilograms of explosives, 16 frag grenades and 89 improvised hand grenades, made from shots to an under-barrel grenade launcher. The bandits installed part of them as mines in the most dangerous places.

   There were two anti-personnel landmines defiantly displayed at the very first hour of capture on the stage, and the notorious “suicide belts” with steel balls. The charges along the walls were supposed to knock out the pillars and bring down the ceiling on the people sitting in the hall. This is in case the suicide bomers for some reason would not cause detonation. But that is not all.

   The third option is to detonate one of the cylinders. One tank was enough to destroy everything and everyone. Already at the time of the explosion, the hostages would die from the monstrous blow of the blast wave, repeatedly amplified in a confined space.

   An interesting conclusion can be drawn from the mining scheme: militants who were out of the hall should not have died along with everyone. For any of the three options, only the auditorium was destroyed. In the lobby, the terrorists and Barayev himself had the opportunity to take advantage of the chaos - and leave.

 

 

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“The hostages began to be taken out at a time when the battle was still going on in adjacent rooms. Some of the militants, who had already been dispersed in the corners, tried to fight back to the last. But they were already isolated, and after a few minutes they were neutralized. ”

 

   Colonel Alexander MIKHAILOV:

- Two hours before the assault, specialists reached the ventilation system and pumped gas through it. At about 5.45, when the gas had already begun to operate, all the assault groups of the Special Operations Center launched an assault. And although the resistance of the terrorists in some areas was desperate, still the gas did its job.

   Well, after the assault itself, the evacuation of people began. Almost thirty to forty minutes, the deadly tired special forces in gas masks and bulletproof vests performed the work of doctors and employees of the Ministry of Emergencies. I remember how we pulled out a heavy man weighing 120 kilograms, who fell into the passage between the seats. I had to break chairs to pull out the body...

   I am sure that if doctors and rescuers arrived at the place of the operation on time, there would be fewer victims. But the responsibility for the lost lives is not they, but their leadership, which did not ensure the coordination of services.

   At first the hostages were taken out without taking off their gas masks, then, when it became too difficult to breathe in them, they were removed. There was no time to pay attention to nausea and dizziness. There was no time to explain something to the ambulance doctors. And they did not really wait for these explanations.

 

   Colonel Vitaly DEMIDKIN:

   - There was an operation for the disposal of explosive devices. Explosives experts worked in the premises. We could run the doctors into the hall, but suddenly there would be a remote detonation from a neighboring building, and there would be many more victims. Then the people number increased, someone broke out of the cordon, the doctors did artificial respiration from mouth to mouth, someone tried to start a heart with an indirect heart massage. There were remarks: “Well, what is there to do? He is ready. There is no pulse. The man is gone. ” Doctors worked selflessly. But they are not gods.

...

   One surviving terrorist could power the whole chain. The militants could let us into the hall, and then outside, with the help of a radio signal, demolish the building. No more than 10-15% of the hostages would survive.

 

   All who were directly in the hall were sent to the commission. Many of the guys were "put on injections," they cleaned the body. I myself was on droppers for fifteen days. Doctors explained that this gas acts on the most vulnerable places in the body. Our guys got problems with kidneys, someone has a liver. Some have started depression. Over the course of two weeks, my head hurt badly and my blood pressure jumped a lot: it was just high, and half an hour later it was already low. But most importantly, we survived and were able to continue the fight against terrorism and terrorists.

 

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/.../

   Before the assault, an antidote was injected. They had an effect on someone, but there were members unaffected by it, and after the special operation a number of employees, about eight people, were in the hospital for treatment - they were poisoned with gas! The doors to the hall were open, I feel the gas, but although we all had gas masks, we did not put them on. It’s hard enough to work in them, shoot, visibility is lost. And I gave the command to two employees, I won’t name them - they still serve - to break glass and cut a huge canvas on the front part in front of the main entrance, where it says “Nord-Ost”. In order to create a draft so that gas could leave the hall as soon as possible, all the more, the doors were already open there.

 

   At first, they broke glass and stained-glass windows - I thought that would be enough, but there was no wind. I had to cut the canvas, it is dense, saturated with oil paint, and creates such a greenhouse effect like a cellophane. They jumped out and began to cut it with knives, then I watched, the correspondents filmed the assault directly from the facade of the main entrance, and how this canvas is cut, the words “Nord-Ost” bounce off in pieces. Airflow probably played a role, and helped us work in the hall and survive for the hostages, not everyone, unfortunately.

   The battle was fast enough. All units worked just fine - each in its own area. The bandits were probably destroyed within ten to fifteen minutes. Maybe even less. Well, then, leaving the military guard inside, we threw all our strength into making people out. It was an initiative born on the spot, initially it was not specified. We did not know how the gas would work, what would happen there. The decision was made on the spot; I don’t even remember who initiated it. The employees themselves, consciously, went for it, seeing the plight of people.

 

 

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   Results:

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8:00. Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasiliev reports on the destruction of 36 terrorists, the release of more than 750 hostages and the removal of 67 bodies of the dead. Unconscious people are placed on buses. The producer of the musical Alexander Tsekalo claims that the hostages are tired, and the terrorists sleep forever.

 

   On television, dead terrorists are shown in spectator chairs, a large balloon in the center of the hall, Movsar Barayev’s corpse with a wound in the groin area and a bottle of alcohol (Hennessy brandy) standing next to him on the floor. The NTV channel shows killed terrorists and female suicide bombers: the vast majority of them were shot in the back of the head.

 

   The admission of relatives to victims in medical institutions was prohibited. According to the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, in spite of statements by the authorities, not all hospitals received lists of released hostages

 

   In total, according to official figures, 130 people from the number of hostages died (according to the assumption of the public organization "Nord-Ost", 174 people). Of 130 people, 10 children died.

   Of the Nord-Ost team, 17 people died, including two young actors of the troupe who played the main characters in childhood - Arseniy Kurylenko and Kristina Kurbatova, 9 people from the orchestra, 4 people from the hall service, 1 person from the technical service , 1 seller of souvenir products. Alexander Karpov also died - a writer, a bard, a translator, an artist, an author of translations from English fiction and the musical "Chicago".

 

 

https://www.warchechnya.ru/nord-ost-posle-shturma/

Photos after operation.

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   About gas:

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   The gas released into the building did not affect everyone: some of the hostages remained conscious. Gas was notp umped into whole building, which resulted in some of the terrorists outside of hall being combat-capable.

   At a press conference in October 2002, Health Minister Yuriy Shevchenko said: "A composition based on fentanyl derivatives was used to neutralize the terrorists." According to an official statement from the FSB, it was also said that “special prescription based on fentanyl derivatives” was used at Dubrovka. The main cause of death of a large number of hostages is called "exacerbation of chronic diseases."

   The process of recovering from the effects of the use of soporific gas for many surviving hostages was a long one; So, Muscovite Tatyana Svetlova, who came to the musical with her 10-year-old son Alexei (also survived), remained paralyzed (left side of the body) for a long time.

 

   The main accusations of some former hostages and relatives of the victims against the authorities were that the authorities did not provide the released hostages with timely qualified medical assistance (one of the main reasons for such a large number of dead was the improperly organized removal and evacuation of sleeping hostages, in which due to improper position - with the body and head tilted forward or backward - their airways were blocked and caused asphyxiation)

 

[Belesarius]

 

 

[LoooSeR]

 

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[LoooSeR]

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   / TASS /. An armed group of 20 masked unknowns attacked a border outpost located on the Tajik-Uzbek border. The attack was committed on Wednesday night, there are number of dead. This was reported by the press center of the Border Troops of the State Committee for National Security (GKNB).

 

   "On the night of November 6, 2019 at 03:23 a.m., an armed group of 20 masked unidentified men, using firearms, attacked the border outpost No. 4 Ishkobod of the military unit of the "Sultanabad" border detachment, the report said. According to the release, the attackers captured five firearms (AKM).

   According to the GKNB press center, as a result of an operation by law enforcement agencies, 15 armed criminals who were surrounded, neutralized, and five more were detained. During the operation, one soldier of the Border Troops and one officer of the Tajik Ministry of Internal Affairs were killed.

 

   The document notes that an operational investigative group was created at the scene of the incident, an investigation is underway. The border outpost is located in the Rudaki region, about 50 km west of the capital, on the Tajik-Uzbek border.

 

   NSFW

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[LoooSeR]

   Didn't knew that it was him on the photo.

 

   Veteran of the Directorate "V" of the TsSN FSB - colonel Bocharov Vyacheslav Alekseevich (ret). During events in Beslan received serious injuries of his left side of face, it was basically put together back in surgery. AFAIK part of bones were replaced with prosthesis.

 

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   In Syria

 

[LoooSeR]

   Not directly  terrorists-related, but in Ingushetia criminal gangs are interconnected with "criminal elements" involved in terrorist activities.

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   The Investigative Committee and the FSB of Russia in cooperation with the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the RosGvardia prevented the activities of an organized criminal group that committed an attack on January 12, and on November 2 of the current year, the assassination of Ibragim Eldzharkiev, the head of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Republic of Ingushetia. The special operation took place on December 6 in Moscow and Ingushetia. As a result, the security forces managed to detain the leader of the organized crime group, Khasan Polonkoev, and five members of the group.

   From HardBlog (aka Hard Ingush)

 

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[Beer]

Six people, four men and two women, were shot dead today in the Ostrava university hospital, Czechia and another three were injured (one woman is in critical condition). It was not an act of terror but an act of a mad man. The shooter was said to suffer from certain illness (he believed it was a cancer) for several months and had a feeling that the doctors didn't want to treat him and nobody wanted to listen to him. It's not clear if he was really ill or if he only believed so. In any case he got mad and today morning he shot nine people sitting in the waiting room in the hospital using illegally owned semi-auto pistol. All the victims were accidentally chosen hospital patients. 

 

The first police responders arrived to the place in only three minutes after the emergency call was received but the shooter was already on the run (certain witness said he panicked and run away when some more people appeared when he was changing the magazine). The shooter drove to his mother, told her what he did, said he was going to kill himself and drove away. Meanwhile the police quickly found his identity and three and half hours after the shooting found him with a hellicopter. The shooter however shot himself in the head when the hellicopter appeared. The police claim he was conscious and able to communicate for a few more minutes before he died. 

 

Such events of mass killing are very rare in our country. It was only the second case I remember in my whole life. While it is of course a big tragedy it is notable that the emergency system worked very well. The police reaction was very fast including the dispatch of the special forces. The hospital radio and text messages were quickly used to inform and advise the people in the hospital what to do. The police was very quickly able to analyze the available video footage, question the witnesses and find the identity of the shooter. He was very quickly found afterwards. 

[heretic88]

Quite sad. It was extensively covered here too in the news. It was also mentioned that the guy shot with incredible accuracy, most were headshots... Where did he train for that?

[Beer]

He was said to go to a shooting range from time to time. Anyway he killed all the people in one room, so it is possible that he did it in executional style. 

[Beer]

Unfortunately the critically injured woman passed away today. 

[LoooSeR]

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Employees of the FSB TSsN Directorate “A” during the detention of a terrorist financier

Republic of Dagestan, December 9, 2019

 

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[LoooSeR]

   Shooting in the center of the Moscow, near/at the FSB building on Lubyanka

   Police is screming on this video to civilians to get away from the street.

 

 

   Shooter getting killed:

 

[LoooSeR]

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All that is known at the moment:
- There were three attackers. They opened fire in the building entrance. Two of them were killed, one ran out onto the street and continued to shoot at the building
- Telegram channel 112 reports about three dead FSO officers, Baza about two killed employees of law enforcements, the Moskva agency writes about two wounded and one killed.
- At the scene of the incident, the SF unit “Grom” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia arrived;
- In Moscow, the "Siren" plan was introduced;
- Bolshaya Lubyanka is closed.

 

 

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   SF unit "Grom"

 

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   One of attacker's gear

 

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   One of dead attackers, videofeed from robot camera

 

[LoooSeR]

   More about yesterday attack on FSB building in Moscow

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   On the evening of December 19, an armed criminal opened fire on Bolshaya Lubyanka, near the FSB building. According to the FSB, one employee died as a result of the shooting, five people were injured [one of those injured died today]. The attacker was eliminated.

 

   As it became known to REN TV, the criminal turned out to be a 39-year-old native of the Moscow region Evgeny Manyurov. In the past, an entrepreneur from Podolsk. His company was engaged in consulting in the field of commercial activity, but was liquidated in 2015.

 

   According to preliminary data, he was fond of shooting for a long time and even won prizes in competitions.

 

   Better photo of a wrap on his gun.

   "An hero":

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   Grom specialists on scene

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[LoooSeR]

 

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   The FSB detained two Russians preparing a terrorist attack in St. Petersburg for the New Year.

  On Friday, December 27, two Russian citizens were detained, who intended to carry out terrorist attacks in public places in St. Petersburg on New Year's Eve. This was reported in the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.

   The United States of America provided information about impending terrorist attacks in crowded places,  noted in the FSB.

   Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked the American leader Donald Trump for the information and assistance in preventing terrorist attacks provided to Moscow by US intelligence agencies.

 

[LoooSeR]

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   Throughout Germany, police raids alleged terrorists.

   In Berlin, Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia and Thuringia, the Prosecutor General's Office searched 9 objects of the “Islamic environment”. Chechens between the ages of 23 and 28 are suspected. Berlin prosecutors believe Islamists were preparing acts of violence.

 

 

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[LoooSeR]

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   FSB detained two students in Sakhalin, planning an armed attack on a college.

They seized, in particular, a sawn-off shotgun with an ammunition, an industrial detonator and explosives

 

   FSB officers detained two students on Sakhalin who were planning an armed attack on a college. This was reported to TASS in the Center for Public Relations (TsOS) of the FSB of Russia.

   "The Federal Security Service, in the framework of a criminal case under part 2 of article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Public calls for terrorist activities"), detained two students of one of the educational institutions of the Sakhalin Region born in 2002 and 2003, involved in the propaganda of terrorism on the Internet ,massacres and suicide, " the TsOS said.

   "During the searches, a shotgun with ammunition, an industrial detonator, improvised explosive devices, explosives, as well as personal diaries containing information about the planned armed attack on the educational institution were seized from students," they added to the TsOS.

 

 

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   And one more, yesterday:

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   In Bashkortostan, the militant preparing the attack was liquidated.

   The National Anti-Terrorism Committee of the Russian Federation published a video from the site of the liquidation of the militant who was preparing the attack in Bashkiria. During a special operation to detain an attacker, special services tried to stop his car. In response to the demand to surrender, the man opened fire and was destroyed. Specialists found a gun and an explosive device ready for use.

 

 

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The shield "Vant-VM" of an OSOM officer of the FSB of Russia in the Republic of Bashkortostan after the liquidation of the terrorist who was preparing the terrorist attack.

 

 

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[Beer]

50 minutes ago, LoooSeR said:

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That's some accuracy. 

[LoooSeR]

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   Law enforcement officers eliminated in Murmansk a follower of the IS terrorist organization.

   "Tonight, during the search measures in Murmansk, the FSB of Russia established the whereabouts of an armed bandit planning to carry out a terrorist attack," the National Anti-Terrorism Committee (NAC) Information Center told Interfax.

   When trying to detain the attacker opened fire on special forces and was neutralized. A ready for use improvised explosive device, weapons and ammunition were discovered at the site of the shootout.

   The identity of the offender is established. According to the NAC, he planned to go to the Middle East after the attack.

   There are no casualties among law enforcement officials and civilian casualties.

 

 

[LoooSeR]

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   Tonight, during the search activities in the suburbs of Yekaterinburg, the federal security service received information about the whereabouts of a hiding group of persons involved in terrorist activities.

 

   In order to prevent terrorist acts and ensure the safety of citizens, the head of the regional Directorate of the FSB of Russia decided to conduct a counter-terrorist operation from 22.30 Moscow time on April 29 and introduce the corresponding legal regime.

 

   A private one-story house in the Chkalovsky district of Yekaterinburg, in which three bandits took refuge, was blocked, residents of nearby houses were evacuated. On the proposal to surrender to the authorities, the bandits opened fire. They were neutralized by the forces of the Malachite ROSN Federal Security Service of Russia in the Sverdlovsk Region. Ready-to-use IEDs, weapons and ammunition were found at the site of the shootout.

 

   According to the information available at the NAC Operational Headquarters, the criminals were supporters of the international terrorist organization ISIS and were preparing to commit high-profile terrorist crimes.

   There were no casualties among the civilian population and no losses among the law enforcement.

 

 

[Stimpy75]

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/40-civilians-including-11-children-killed-in-ypg-pkk-attack-in-afrin-syria/1821714#

At least 40 civilians, including 11 children, were killed on Tuesday in a YPG/PKK terrorist attack in northwestern Syria, Turkey's Defense Ministry said.

[LoooSeR]

   FSB armored truck during CTO. Deus Vult!

 

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