Moscow (AsiaNews/BBC) - Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for the Beslan school siege, in which at least 320 hostages, many of them children, died. A statement on a rebel website said the Riyadus-Salikhin group carried out the attack at the school in North Ossetia. The group said it also bombed two Russian planes and carried out another recent attack outside a Moscow station.
The Riyadus-Salikhin group has been linked to a large number of terror attacks in Russian in the past decade. Russia has offered a m reward for the capture of Mr Basayev and another Chechen rebel leader, Aslan Maskhadov.
"The operation... in the town of Beslan [was carried out by] the second battalion of martyrs under the command of Colonel Orstkhoyev," said the statement in the name of Mr Basayev.
Mr Basayev blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the deaths at the school, which he said only happened when Russian special forces stormed the building. He said the group, who held more than 1,100 people hostage inside the school, had been demanding the withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya and, in the absence of this, the resignation of Putin.
Basayev said the group had told intermediaries who came to the school that the hostages would be given food and water and the youngest children released if the Russian side began to meet their demands.
Basayev distanced himself from Osama bin-Laden. "I don't know him and have never received money from him."
In the press release the separatist leader also provided figures for his operations. "This year I received funds amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. The plane attacks cost US$ 4,000 (3,300); Beslan came to about US$ 12,000 (10,000), mostly for food and equipment. Weapons, cars and explosives were taken from the enemy."
Basayev gave information about the terrorists involved in the Beslan siege. "Altogether, they were 33: 14 Chechens including two women, nine Ingush, three Russians, two Arabs, two Ossetians, one Tatar, one member from Kabardino-Balkaria (a Russian republic from the northern Caucasus) and another member from Zabaikal (south-eastern Russia).