CHECHNYA: Russian security forces were searching yesterday for the bodies of several militants believed killed in two fierce battles close to Chechnya. Officials say the battles foiled plans for an attack on the scale of last year's school siege in Beslan.
Cranes and mechanical diggers dug through the rubble of a house in Makhachkala, the capital of the Dagestan region, after troops pounded it with anti-tank grenades, bazookas, rockets and ultimately tank shells to kill five rebels holed up inside.
In the town of Kaspiisk, on Dagestan's Caspian Sea coast, one guerrilla was killed and four captured after special forces besieged another house.
Four Russian commandos were also killed in the two operations, which followed another such siege close to Chechnya last week, and fuelled fears that the fighting that has gripped the republic for a decade was spreading to unstable neighbouring provinces.
"The bandits destroyed in Kaspiisk and Makhachkala were preparing a major terrorist act, similar to the one in Beslan," said Mr Nikolai Gryaznov, the head of the FSB domestic security service in Dagestan.
"We used intelligence information, carried out dozens of raids and searches. This allowed us to corner the criminal group as it prepared for that terrorist act. One of the men wore a belt stuffed with powerful explosives, and they were all very well armed."
Mr Gadzhi Makachev, a Dagestani member of the Russian Parliament, commented: "It was the same plan as Beslan, they were preparing to seize a school."
The 15-hour standoff in Makhachkala began when a police patrol challenged the militants and they took refuge in a house. They took the resident family hostage but later released them, allegedly after telling them that they were "fighters for Islam".
Russian television showed special forces with armoured vehicles firing anti-tank rockets at a burning building, while a helicopter gunship circled overhead.
"What put a full stop to the siege was a tank from the 136th brigade stationed at Buinaksk," said Mr Gryaznov after the rebels finally stopped returning fire late on Saturday night.
"It practically blew the remains of the building out of the ground."
A bomb disposal team and sniffer dogs worked alongside the mechanical diggers yesterday, searching for the bodies of the gunmen and any booby traps they may have set.
The authorities' failure quickly to find the rebels' remains raised fears that they may have slipped away or been allowed to escape, as has happened in several sieges in and around Chechnya.
