Relatives of the hostages demonstrated in front of the theater, holding banners reading ‘Stop the war in Chechnya’

MOSCOW , October 25 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Chechen fighters holding some 700 hostages in a Moscow theater released 15 people, including eight children Friday, October 25.

Amid mounting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to resolve the crisis and end the Chechen war once and for all, one of the hostages said the hall in which they were being held contained a large bomb that could be exploded at the first sign of an attempted assault, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Seven hostages were freed early Friday by Chechen fighters demanding an end to the war in Chechnya , Federal Security Service (FSB) spokesman Sergei Ignachenko said.

Red Cross officials were later allowed to bring out eight children from the building, senior Russian lawmaker Dmitry Rogozin told Interfax at the headquarters of the crisis unit.

The FSB spokesman said an agreement had been reached with the fighters on the release of the 75 non-Russian hostages.

The fighters said they were willing to hand over the non-Russians on condition that diplomats from their countries of origin were there to receive them, he said.

But the group of foreign ambassadors who entered the theater Friday morning to secure the release of the non-Russian hostages left empty-handed shortly afterwards, a senior official with Moscow town hall said.

"Ambassadors and Red Cross officials were there, but no hostage was released," Alexander Muzykantsky said, as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Ignachenko said the hostage-takers had postponed a decision on releasing the foreign nationals until 11:00 am (0700 GMT).

Foreigners were said to include Americans, an Armenian, Australians, Azeris, Britons, one Bulgarian, a Canadian, Dutch nationals, Georgians, Germans, Latvians, a Moldovan, Swiss nationals, Turks, Ukrainians and one Yugoslav national.

The fighters threatened to blow up the theater with all the hostages inside if Russia does not start to withdraw its forces from the Republic of Chechnya .

Relatives of the hostages demonstrated in front of the theater, calling for an end to the Russian war on Chechnya .

Television broadcast images of the protest as print media vented their anger at the Kremlin, slamming Putin for the government's failure to prevent the Chechen independence fighters from bringing the war into the heart of Moscow .

Movsar Barayev, leader of the Chechen fighters said Thursday, October 24, that his Mujahideen, including 20 widows of Chechen soldiers, came to Moscow to fight and die on enemy land.

"If Putin and his gang want to preserve the lives of his citizens, then they will stop war and will remove their forces from Chechnya ," Barayev, commander of the Islamic Regiment of Special Task Force, stressed in a phone interview with Kavkaz Center .

"The only possible way to save the lives of more than a thousand people is the curtailment of the carnage of Chechen people, the end to war and withdrawal of invaders from the territory of the independent Chechen state," he said.

In the first televised statement of the fighters Thursday, Al-Jazeera satellite channel showed Chechen women fighters, dressed in black, vowing to sacrifice their lives in defense of their homeland, Chechnya .

"Every people have the right to self-determination. Russia has stripped us of this right. We are here to claim this right which was given to us, like all peoples of the globe, by God Almighty," one of them said.

"The Russians have drowned our country in the blood of our sons," she added, accusing Russian forces of "killing women, children and elders in Chechnya ."

"We do not care where to die and that is why we came here to die," she said, asserting that if they die, they will take along with them "hundreds of infidels."

"Even if we get killed, other brothers and sisters will come along with the same readiness to sacrifice their lives," the Chechen woman said.

She accused Russian forces of perpetrating all forms of terrorism against the Chechen people, branding Russia as terrorism personified.

"We are ready to defend our lands with self-sacrifice," she averred.

In a similar televised statement, also broadcast by Al-Jazeera, one of the Chechen fighters said they came to Moscow to "stop the war or die as martyrs."

"We are yearning to die more than you are seeking to live," he said.

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