Explosives of a kind used by Chechen rebels have been found in
one of two airliners that crashed almost simultaneously, pointing
to a terrorist attack, Russian investigators said on Friday.
The FSB security service declined to comment on an Internet
claim by an Islamic group that its followers had brought the planes
down on Tuesday, killing at least 89 people, to avenge the killing
of Muslims in Russia's rebel Chechnya province.
But it said it had identified "a number of people with possible
links to the terrorist act."
Investigators were tracing the background of two passengers with
Chechen surnames, one from each plane.
Chechnya's Islamist rebels have staged spectacular attacks in
the past to press their independence drive, and threatened more
attacks in the run-up to the election of a president to head the
pro-Moscow regional government this Sunday.
But moderate Chechen rebels accused Russia's special forces of
spreading misinformation and denied any connection with the Islamic
group, which called itself the Islambouli Brigade.
Traces of explosive
The Tu-154, bound for Sochi on the Black Sea, crashed near the
southern city of Rostov-on-Don less than four minutes after a
Tu-134 flying to Volgograd crashed near Tula, south of Moscow. Both
flew from Moscow's Domodedovo airport.
"During the examination of the wreckage of the Tu-154 plane
traces of explosives were found," said a spokeswoman for the FSB,
entrusted by President Vladimir Putin with the probe.
She said the explosive was of a type used in some previous
attacks blamed on Chechen separatists, including apartment block
bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999 that killed more 200
attacks that Chechen rebels accused Moscow of staging.
The head of the investigating commission said on Thursday night
that the crew had activated a distress signal shortly before
crashing, but failed to provide voice confirmation.
Internet statement
The Arabic statement from the Islambouli Brigade said five
militants had hijacked each plane, according to the website. The
statement, whose authenticity could not be verified, threatened
more attacks.
"Russia's slaughtering of Muslims is still continuing and will
not end except with a bloody war," it said.
An FSB spokesman declined to comment on the statement.
Khaled Islambouli was the Egyptian army officer who assassinated
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
He was a member of the Jihad group, part of which integrated
into al-Qaida in the 1990s under Ayman al-Zawahri, the top aide to
Saudi-born al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Intelligence experts say al-Qaida has been trying for some years
to offer support to Chechen militants and harness them to its
cause.
News agencies said no relatives had come forward to claim the
remains of one passenger, a 27-year-old woman who gave a Chechen
surname when buying her ticket.
A source at the investigating commission told Itar-Tass news
agency that the presence of at least two Chechen surnames among the
passengers "could not fail to raise suspicion."
Moderate Chechen separatists said on their website www.chechenpress.com that
they had no link to the crashes: "If we planned to hijack planes,
we would not have to go to Domodedovo in the North Caucasus there
is no shortage of airports ... We are pursuing a war, not
terrorism."
(China Daily August 28, 2004)