- AFP -- Russia was facing hard questions over its gas
attack on Chechen hostage-takers as authorities said the death toll mounted
to 118 people, with hundreds more seriously ill.
-
- Anxious relatives kept vigil outside hospitals, desperately
waiting to know if loved ones had made it through the ordeal in a Moscow
theatre, which ended when Russian forces used gas to subdue the rebels
and then attacked.
-
- Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev denied reports
that the gas had caused the hostage deaths but doctors said they did not
know how to treat the ailing because they had not been told what the "special
substance" was.
-
- Speculation in the foreign press that Russian forces
may have used nerve gas was sure to put further pressure on President Vladimir
Putin over his handling of the crisis, being seen here as Moscow's own
September 11.
-
- If confirmed, use of a chemical gas would surely unleash
an avalanche of criticism of Putin, elected more than two years ago on
a wave of support for his hardline stance against Muslim separatists in
Chechnya.
-
- "I appeal to everyone for help. We can't find him
anywhere," one woman told NTV television, calling for news of here
missing 18-year-old son. Kommersant newspaper said about 100 people were
still unaccounted for.
-
- Special forces stormed a Moscow theatre early Saturday
where more than 800 people had been held hostage since Wednesday night
by a gang of dynamite-strapped Chechen militants who vowed to blow up the
building.
-
- Putin rejected their calls for an end to Moscow's three-year
army campaign in Chechnya, and Russian authorities said the army assault
-- which killed 50 hostage-takers and led to 118 hostage deaths -- had
been a success.
-
- An AFP employee who was among those taken hostage said
Sunday that none of the bodies of the dead or injured bore bullet wounds
-- an account that seemed to confirm reports that the gas caused some of
the hostage deaths.
-
- "They are not telling us anything about the nature
of the gas," Oleg Zyogonov said by telephone from his hospital, adding:
"I saw no bullet impact on the bodies."
-
- He said hospital staff had forbidden him to talk to anybody
and were monitoring his telephone conversation with the AFP office in Moscow.
-
- "They forbade me to talk to you. A doctor is watching
me," he said before hanging up.
-
- Doctors who entered the theatre after the raid told local
media that several hostages had died choking on their own vomit, a likely
effect of the gas pumped into the building by Russian forces.
-
- Intelligence experts told Moskovsky Komsomolets paper
that special forces did not expect the chemical agent to have such a powerful
effect, and that it was more concentrated than they thought.
-
- Of the more than 700 hostages freed from the theatre,
at least 546 of them were hospitalized, many of them in serious condition
from the after-effects of gas inhalation, according to the Internet news
service, gazeta.ru.
-
- The website said a check of Moscow hospitals revealed
that only "four or five" of the injured had received bullet wounds.
-
- One expert told Israeli newspaper Haaretz newspaper that
nerve gas may have been used in the raid, which he said would explain the
condition of the patients.
-
- The Chechen rebels, who took the Moscow theater-goers
hostage late Wednesday, had threatened to start executing the hostages
from Saturday or blow up the building unless Russian troops withdrew from
Chechnya.
-
- Zyogonov said the guerrillas said they would decapitate
some of the hostages if Russia failed to meet their demands.
-
- Moscow has been bogged down in a bloody conflict in the
breakaway Caucasus republic for three years, but Putin has refused to cede
any ground to the separatists, insisting they respect Russian sovereignty
in the republic.
-
- But some commentators believe the incident, which Putin
originally blamed on "foreign" influences, may end hope of a
political solution in Chechnya and lead the president, a former KGB officer,
to expand his power in the country.
-
- He has tried to link the Chechnya campaign to the anti-terror
campaign launched by US President George W. Bush, who expressed his support
for Putin during the crisis.
-
- "We achieved the near impossible, saving hundreds,
hundreds of people," Putin said in a televised address late Saturday.
"We proved that Russia cannot be brought to its knees."
-
- He acknowledged the high price paid for ending the crisis,
saying: "Now I want to address the families and friends of those who
died. We were not able to save everyone. Forgive us."
-
- Among those killed were two foreigners, a Dutch woman
and a Kazakh teenage girl. Some 75 foreign hostages were among those trapped
in the Moscow theater.
-
- Security experts told Moskovsky Komsomolets paper that
Russian forces expected some 150 hostages to die in the raid.
-
- One special forces member who participated in the raid
said troops planned to storm the theater before the hostage-takers' deadline
expired.
-
- "In our eyes, it all went exactly according to plan,"
he said.
-
- Russia's foreign ministry said Moscow could now boycott
a summit with the European Union set for Denmark newxt month if a scheduled
congress on Chechnya goes ahead in Copenhagen on Monday.
-
- Putin's hard line on the tiny north Caucasus region is
sure to come under increased questioning in the wake of the hostage-taking.
-
- France, which has led criticism of US plans to attack
Iraq, insisted on Saturday that Russia would have to find a political solution
to the Chechnya stand-off.
-
- "Terrorism feeds on crises and uses them,"
Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin said.
-
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