Thursday, Sep 30, 2004
Saudi militant funded Beslan raid: Russia
By Vladimir Radyuhin
MOSCOW, SEPT. 29. The school hostage-taking raid in Beslan, southern Russia, earlier this month was financed by a Saudi militant, the Russian military has said.
Abu Hafs, a Saudi national, funded the siege in North Ossetia and a foiled terror strike in Dagestan, another region neighbouring Chechnya. Abu Hafs has replaced Abu al-Walid, a Saudi killed earlier this year, as the foreign fund-raiser for Chechen rebels. Russian sources said the two Saudis and Omar Ibn al-Khattab, a warlord killed in Chechnya in 2002 met Osama bin Laden.
In the early 1990s, the three militants fought in Tajikistan before Osama ordered them to move to Chechnya.
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