 A few hundred people gathered [on 26 October] near a Moscow theater to commemorate victims of a deadly hostage crisis in 2002, with some still-grieving relatives bitterly criticizing the state over a botched rescue operation. Raw emotions surfaced at the October 26 ceremony outside the Dubrovka Theater, where some 40 gunmen took hundreds of audience members, actors, and staff hostage 15 years ago and demanded the withdrawal of federal troops from Russia's Chechnya region. The hostage crisis began on October 23, 2002, when the Chechen militants burst into the theater during the performance of a popular musical. It ended 57 hours later, when security forces stormed the building after pumping in toxic gas that neutralized the attackers but led to the deaths of many hostages. [...] Source: RFE/RL [26 October 2017] Photo: Wikipedia |
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