14 December 2004, 23:46
Anti-drug department assaulted by Islamic extremists
A duty station of the Department of the Federal Anti-drug Service in Kabardino-Balkaria was assaulted in Nalchik, the capital of the republic, on December 14. Criminals killed four officers who were on duty that night and set the building on fire after it. They seized 79 automatic rifles, 182 pistols, and ammunition.
Special services consider two main versions of the attack. The first version is that it was a vengeance of a drug dealer. According to the second version, the attack on the anti-drug department was committed by members of the extremist organization Yarmuk.
Meanwhile, editors of the Chechen separatist website Kavkaz Center have received a statement signed by "the Information Center of the special group of the Kabardino-Balkarian Jamaat Yarmuk". In this statement, the organization claims responsibility for the attack on the Kabardino-Balkarian anti-drug department. "It's not a secret for anyone in Kabardino-Balkaria that the republican drug trade is under control of the Kabardino-Balkarian interior ministry, and the republican FSB (Federal Security Service) department provides channels through which drugs are delivered to the republic," reads the statement.
Local experts rate this crime as a new attempt to destabilize the situation in Kabardino-Balkaria and turn the republic into another hot spot in the Caucasus.
