In Russia Over 2,000 Killed Or Wounded By Terrorists In Past 16 Months

In Russia over 2,000 people have been killed or wounded by terrorists in the past sixteen months.

Yet Russia's conflict with Chechnya is not well and correctly kwnown. Many sympathised with Chechnya's struggle for independence against Russia in the mid-1990s, but do not know many of the "freedom fighters" are like terrorists and are breaking war for more than just independence but to bring about a radical Islamic state.

Former U.S. Government senior counter-terrorism official Paul Murphy has a book coming out soon. The book, "Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror" (Brassey's), examines the conflict. He had lived, worked and traveled extensively in Russia and Central Asia from 1994 to 2001.

Chechnya has never buckled to Russian domination and there is a long history of blood-letting between the two sides. Indeed Stalin's mass deportation of Chechens in 1944 is looked back upon by many with extreme bitterness and anger.

Chechnya's first conflict with post-Soviet Russia was brought on in 1994. Chechnya was not a country struggling to regain its sovereignty but a territory of Russia which was illegally seceded in 1991.

The second conflict occurred in August 1999 when a leader, Shamil Basayev and his top military commander, Khattab, stormed into neighbouring Dagestan, which is Russian territory, in an attempt to establish a radical Islamic state. Khattab vowed to "create a pure Islamic land" made up of at least Dagestan and Chechnya, which would have no room for Russians, Christians or Jews.

The result of this was much violence and suffering, and Murphy describes Islamic warriors' brutal acts to include kidnappings, tortures and mass slaughters.

Apartment building bombings in Russia and the siege of a Moscow theater on October 23, 2002 were the results of the conflict in Chechnya.

In his book Murphy is cautious to differentiate between ordinary Chechens and terrortists. Most Chechens live peaceful lives. Also he admits that Russia's brutal military conduct and corruption in Chechnya has provoked and facilitated war and terror.

His book puts forward the view that extreme Islam is at war with the rest of the world. The Islamic fundamentalists are hostile to the West and especially Judeo-Christian heritage.