Courtesy of Threats Watch: Russia's Most Wanted Terrorist, Shamil Basayev, has been killed by a truck explosion in his convoy in Ingushetia, which is Russian territory in the south bordering Chechnya. A Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) operation eliminated the terrorist.
Basayev was the founder of Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB) and the mastermind behind the Beslan School massacre, which is chronicled from the inside in a truly gripping story in Esquire of the horrors experienced by the 1,100 Russian students and parents held hostage on the first day of school in the North Ossetia town. 344 civilians were killed during the three-day ordeal, among them 186 children. Not only did Basayev plan the Beslan attack, he had also personally recruited the shahidkas (female suicide bombers) used.
The Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism has an interesting perspective in their online biography brief of the Chechen terrorist.
Although now known as an Islamic terrorist, sources close to Basayev describe him as a man who adopted fundamentalist Islam simply as a reason to exercise his long-time love of fighting. Some analysts believe that his continued adherence to fundamentalist Islam is a way of ensuring funding from the Islamist movement in the Middle East and that he has moved among the different regions of the Caucuses because of a loss of popular support in Chechnya. Despite these allegations, Basayev claims that he has never received money from Osama bin Laden.
Counterterrorism Blog details the carnage that Basayev was responsible for in some detail, including informative links to detailed work by Lorenzo Vidino, Dan Darling and Evan Kohlmann.
The AP also timelines the major attacks linked to Basayev. As always, Gateway Pundit offers link- and image-rich coverage, including numerous links to his previous coverage of Shamil Basayev.
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