New posts

Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Boondocksaint375, post: 11210"] Russian Special Forces Kill Ex-Guantanamo Prisoner in Shootout By Michael Heath June 28 (Bloomberg) -- Russian special forces killed a former Guantanamo Bay inmate in a shootout during a raid in the country's North Caucasus region, the intelligence agency said. Ruslan Odizhev was shot dead in Kabardino-Balkaria, a republic that neighbors Chechnya, after he resisted arrest, the Federal Security Service, the main successor to the KGB, said in a statement yesterday. The service, known as the FSB, said Odizhev fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan and was sent to the U.S. detention center in Cuba after being captured by American troops. Odizhev was wanted in Russia as a suspect in the September 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk that killed more than 300 people. He was also suspected of involvement in the 2005 attack on security and government buildings in Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkaria that left more than 100 people dead. Odizhev was one of seven Russian Muslims released by the U.S. from Guantanamo in 2004 into Russian custody. Three of the men were tortured or mistreated after returning to Russia, according to a March report by New York-based Human Rights Watch. It said Odizhev was released after three months. The FSB said he was the spiritual leader of Yarmuk, an Islamic extremist organization connected to numerous terrorist attacks. Russia blamed Chechen separatists for the 1999 apartment bombings and sent forces to the republic a month later, its second invasion in five years. President Vladimir Putin, who was prime minister at the time, pledged then to bring peace to the region with an assault on bandits. The rebels fought back against Russia, with raids on neighboring regions including the assault on Nalchik. The city is 120 kilometers (75 miles) west of the North Ossetian town of Beslan, where 331 people, most of them children, died in 2004 in the worst terrorist attack in Russia. Militants calling for an independent Chechnya took about 1,200 hostages at a school in Beslan on Sept. 1, 2004. The assault, organized by Chechen rebel Shamil Basayev, ended when Russian special forces stormed the building. [/QUOTE]

Verification: How many letters are in "ShadowSpear?"