MosNews A report by the U.S. analytical team Stratfor.com says that Islamic fighters who clashed with Russian law enforcers in the city of Nalchik earlier this month had planned a large-scale attack involving a suicide aircraft mission, resembling the September 11 attacks.
The report, published on the Internet on Thursday quoted Russian military contacts and other sources as saying that the events in Nalchik apparently were supposed to be just the first phase of a plan that ultimately was to include flying explosives-laden aircraft into high-profile targets elsewhere in Russia. Though the exact targets have not been confirmed, sources say possible targets included the Kremlin, a military district headquarters and a railway hub in Rostov-on-Don, a nuclear plant in the vicinity of Saratov, and a hydroelectric plant or dam on the Volga. Sources also say the militants had a back-up plan that would have involved mining important government buildings and taking hostages — tactics the Chechens have used in other headline-grabbing attacks.
Reportedly, the initial plot was to have been carried out on Oct. 17, with a force of about 700 militants. The entire plan apparently started to unravel nearly 10 days in advance: Acting on tips from local residents, Russian forces arrested two suspected militants — who reportedly confessed to planning attacks — as early as Oct. 8. As a result, fighting in Nalchik continued for almost three days — from Oct. 13 till Oct. 16 and about 60 suspected terrorist were killed, along with 12 civilians and about 30 security forces.
Immediately after the Nalchik raid the Chechen Society newspaper published a similar report in which it quoted a source in the local branch of the Russian domestic security service, the FSB.
According to the report, the raid on Nalchik began in the early hours of Thursday, Oct. 13. The rebels were reportedly trying to seize the local airport to hijack a military plane. The source said the rebels had intended to fit it out with explosives and fly it to Moscow. The plane would have stood more chance of passing military identification systems, as it is equipped with a friend-or-foe identification system, the source explained. http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/10/27/nalchikreport.shtml
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