Chechens Threaten To Kill Hostages

The body of a young woman shot by Chechen rebels was dragged from a Moscow theater Thursday while two other captives raced to freedom under fire as insurgents holding hundreds threatened to kill themselves and their hostages if the Russian army does not pull out of Chechnya.

Forty rebels, including women who claimed to be widows of ethnic insurgents, stormed the theater just before the second act of a popular musical at 9:05 p.m. Wednesday. The woman, shot in the chest, was the only known fatality of the hostage-taking as it moved into its second day.

Police told CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth, the woman hostage was in her twenties. She was shot in the chest and her fingers broken.

Relatives and friends stood in freezing weather outside the theater in a rundown southeast Moscow neighborhood 3 miles from the Kremlin, their dread matching the grimness of the scene and the desperation of the estimated 600 captives inside. Special forces troops moved in formation around the building and armored vehicles stood ready. Snipers were on rooftops.

As Roth reports, with a ring of armor and emergency vehicles around the site, a few others have escaped or been released, including children - and a doctor, heart specialist Maria Shkolnikova, released to deliver a message. It was a grim warning that more hostages will be shot unless Russia pulls its troops out of Chechnya.

Three Americans were among the 75 foreign hostages in the theater.

In televised remarks, President Vladimir Putin described the hostage-taking as one of the largest terror attacks in history and claimed it had been planned "in one of the foreign terrorist centers" which "made a plan and found the perpetrators." He did not provide evidence the raid was organized abroad.

In a broadcast monitored in Cairo, Egypt, the Qatar-based satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera transmitted statements by some of the hostage-takers who said thousands of their comrades stood ready to die for the Chechen cause.

"I swear by God we are more keen on dying than you are keen on living," a black-clad male said in the videotaped broadcast. "Each one of us is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of God and the independence of Chechnya."

"Even if we are killed, thousands of brothers and sisters will come after us, ready to sacrifice themselves," said a female among the group, only her eyes peering from a head-to-toe black robe.

An employee said the tape had been delivered to Qatar from Al-Jazeera's Moscow bureau Thursday morning. It apparently was made Wednesday before the theater takeover. The language spoken by those on the tape could not be determined since the audio was broadcast with a voiced-over Arabic translation.

The tape underlined what appeared to have been intense planning that went into the audacious operation, which brought the Chechen war 865 miles north to the Russian capital.

One of the masked men on the tape sat before the camera with a laptop computer in front of him and a Quran, the Muslim holy book, on the floor at his right side.

"We came to the Russian capital to stop the war or gain martyrdom, and our demands are stopping the war and the withdrawal of Russian troops," one speaker said.

Another man on the Al-Jazeera tape said the attack was planned "based on orders from the military ruler of the Republic of Chechnya," possibly referring to Aslan Maskhadov, who was president of the province in the interval between the 1996 end of the first war with Russia and the resumption of fighting in 1999.

These days, some of the Chechens who led efforts to create an independent country and have fought two brutal wars against Russia have adopted the language, methods and sometimes even the dress of extremist Islamic movements and taken to terrorism to draw attention to their cause.

Al-Jazeera is known for having broadcast statements by Osama bin Laden and other members of his al Qaeda terrorist network. Russian and U.S. officials also have said some al Qaeda fighters may be in Chechnya. Chechens were among fighters ousted from Afghanistan late last year when the ruling Taliban were overthrown.

The dramatic hostage-taking was a heavy blow to Putin, who repeatedly has said the situation in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim republic in southern Russia, is under control.

Roth reports that President Vladimir Putin's response was to call the hostages' safety his top priority. This a terrorist act planned abroad, he said, but gave no hint how his government hopes to end it.

There's desperation in the wait by relatives at the scene. And national TV coverage provides a non-stop reminder of the war far from here that Putin promised to end.

On and off for nearly a decade, Chechen fighters have tried to push the Russian army out of the mostly Muslim republic, where economics and politics as much as religion have been friction points in an almost perpetual conflict. It's cost as many as a hundred and forty thousand lives - a tenth of Chechnya's population.

Five hostages were released Thursday afternoon after a negotiating session between two Russian lawmakers and the rebels, raising hopes for a peaceful end to the crisis.

But optimism was dashed shortly afterward when the body of the dead woman was dragged out of the theater by medics, and rebels fired off two rounds from rocket-propelled grenade launchers at two other young women who jumped from theater windows and escaped.

Lawmakers Irina Khakamada and Iosif Kobzon — who is also a singer beloved by Chechens — briefed the Kremlin on their talks with the hostage-takers. The legislators said one of the Chechens promised citizens of countries "not at war with Chechnya" would be released.

Sergei Ignatchenko of the Federal Security Service said 39 hostages had been released. Some audience members and many in the cast were able to flee in the early moments of the crisis, including a group who said they tied costumes together and climbed from a third-floor dressing room window.

U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow said three Americans were among the hostages, who also include Britons, Dutch, Australians, Austrians and Germans. A British hostage, appearing ill, was freed Thursday afternoon and hospitalized.

Roth reports that Vershbow said, "In the spirit of what we've been doing since last September, we are prepared to share any relevant intelligence that we may acquire to assist the resolution of this crisis."

At a counseling center set up in the drab neighborhood around the factory, Alina Vlasova, 24, said her sister, Marina, was so upset when she called from inside the theater that she could barely speak. "They are standing over us with automatic rifles and are getting angrier," Alina said her sister told her.

Hostage Maria Shkolnikova, who spoke with Echo of Moscow radio by cellular phone, said the hostage-takers had also asked to talk with representatives of Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. The group's international director Morten Rostrup was headed for Moscow Thursday night. The group, which is known for giving medical assistance in war zones, has not become involved in past hostage situations.

"People are close to a nervous breakdown," said Shkolnikova, who added the hostages had been fed only some water and chocolate. But parliament member Valery Draganov said food supplies had been delivered to the theater.

One hostage told a radio interviewer by telephone that the rebels had attached explosives to theater chairs, support columns, walls and along the aisles as well as their own bodies.

The Kremlin announced that Putin has canceled his planned trip to this week's summit of APEC countries in Mexico, where he was to have met on the sidelines with President Bush.

A Chechen rebel Web site as said the hostage-takers were led by Movsar Barayev, the nephew of warlord Arbi Barayev, who reportedly died last year. The hostage-takers were referred to as "smertniki," a word that in Russian refers to fighters who die for a cause.