Russia buried the firstvictims of last week's bloody theatre siege in Moscow today as it unveiledplans for a new national security plan to combat the threat of"terrorism" by military means.
Police arrested dozens of people suspected of involvement in thethree-day stand-off which left 117 hostages and 50 Chechen militantsdead, almost all of them gassed by Russian forces in a controversialarmy assault.
Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia is drawing up a newnational security plan that would see increased use of the armedforces in the wake of the crisis at a Moscow theatre where armedChechens seized some 800 people last Wednesday.
"We understand that the terrorist threat to Russia, includingfrom outside, is increasing," Ivanov said in televised remarks.
"I do not mean only perpetrators of terrorist attacks, butaccomplices and those who provide financial support as well," hesaid after meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
Interfax cited FSB intelligence agency chief Nikolai Patrushevas saying that the plan would devote particular attention to thesituation inside the southern republic of Chechnya, where Russiantroops have been battling separatist forces since October 1999.
With the nation still in mourning for the victims of the hostagecrisis, seized during the performance of a hit musical, familiesburied 16 of the hostages who died.
City officials told RIA Novosti news agency that the funerals,the first to be held since the end of the theatre siege, took placein four cemetries in Moscow and the surrounding region.
Another 40 people will be buried on Wednesday, they added.In Chechnya, separatist fighters downed a Russian helicopternear the capital Grozny with an anti-aircraft missile, leaving fourdead, Interfax reported quoting a local ministry official.
A total of 418 survivors of the Moscow hostage drama werereleased from hospitals by Tuesday evening, health officials said asquoted by the RIA Novosti news agency.
According to hospital officials, 245 people remain in medicalcare. Sixteen of the former hostages are still in criticalcondition.
A US national, Sandy Booker of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, wasamong the dead, the US embassy in the Russian capital said Tuesday.
There were 75 non-Russian hostages, nine of whom have beenconfirmed dead - one American, one Dutch, one Austrian, oneBelarussian, one Kazakh, one Armenian and three Ukrainians.
Putin yesterday vowedthat Russia would take bold action against"terrorists wherever they may be," but the crisis has renewedinternational pressure on Moscow to seek a political solution intiny breakaway Chechnya.
Moscow claims Chechen separatists have links to internationalterrorism, including Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, and likenedits handling of the hostage stand-off to the US campaign sinceSeptember 11.
AFP