MOSCOW, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev reportedly used a party celebrating his third marriage to call for a new holy war against Russia, The Independent said Thursday. | Dammit, we don't bomb one islamic wedding and look who we miss. |
The claim was posted on the official Chechen separatist Web site, which said the wedding took place Feb. 14 in southern Russia, where he exchanged vows with "the sister of a Russian Islamist warrior." | Keeping it in the family, again |
The site said he also held meetings with rebel leaders from across the region and quoted his optimism. | Islamic wedding = terrorist high command meeting |
"The meetings were pleasant and useful and (God willing) a jihad will rage over the whole Caucasus this year," the site said.
Russia has a $10 million bounty on his head and that of rebel Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov after last September's Beslan school siege, which Basayev claims to have masterminded. A unilateral rebel ceasefire expired Wednesday but Maskhadov extended it, making a fresh call for the Russians to enter into negotiations with him, an offer they have consistently refused. |