ABSTRACT
The Riyadus-Salikhin Suicide Battalion (RAS) was a Chechen Islamist terrorist organization founded by Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev in the summer of 2002, just prior to the infamous hostage-taking operation in the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow. Since this date, the RAS had become one of the most spectacular and lethal terrorist organizations in the world, renowned for its cunning ability to infiltrate enemy environment and meticulously prepare and synchronize their operations. At the tactical level, Basayev was the first to engage in large-scale barricade hostage-taking operations involving a large commando unit of suicide fighters, the first to explore the potential of radiological terrorism, the first to resort to sending live video footage of beheadings of Russian soldiers to the media, and the first among Islamists to rely almost exclusively on female suicide operatives. In the time period between its formation in the summer of 2002 and its last attack in Beslan in 2004, the RAS perpetrated over a dozen spectacular operations, which resulted in the deaths of more than 1,100 people and the injury of many more. Considering the fact that only 28 attacks in history have killed more than 100 people, RAS’ average casualty rate of nearly 100 fatalities per attack ranks the group among the most lethal terrorist organizations ever. By another comparison, the number of RAS-inflicted fatalities in the first 24 months of its operation is over three times higher than the number of all Israelis who died during the same time period in terrorist attacks perpetrated by all Palestinian terror groups combined (331)!356
