Militants launched simultaneous attacks on police and government buildings in one of the main cities in Russia’s turbulent Caucasus region today, sparking battles involving heavy-arms fire and explosions that forced the evacuation of schools and left bodies in the streets.

Thousands of mourners carrying flowers filed into a gutted school gymnasium and then to a cemetery where rows of graves bore children’s names and pictures today, commemorating the anniversary of the hostage tragedy that claimed 331 lives.

Mothers of victims of the Beslan school seizure, their grief mixed with fury a year after Russia’s deadliest hostage-taking raid, said today that the government had failed to learn from the tragedy and had left the country vulnerable to equally devastating terrorist attacks.

Radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev today claimed in an internet posting that Russian security services bore responsibility for last year’s bloody Beslan school siege by allegedly providing the attackers a safe corridor through the region in an attempt to trap them.

The Chechen rebel leader who organised last year’s deadly hostage-taking attack on a Russian school admitted he was a terrorist and warned that he was planning more attacks, possibly a similar atrocity.

A rebel-linked website said yesterday that Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for a power cut that plunged Moscow into chaos two days earlier.

A rebel-linked website said today that Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for a power outage that plunged Moscow into chaos two days earlier.

Russian authorities said today a Kuwaiti militant who was an al-Qaida emissary to Chechnya has been killed by security forces in a neighbouring region, the second statement in as many days linking foreigners to Chechen rebels.

Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov said in an interview published today that he and his security service had set the target of killing rebel warlord Shamil Basayev by May 9, the first anniversary of Kadyrov’s father’s assassination in a bombing at a Victory Day parade in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Stepping up their hunt for their biggest enemy, Russia’s security services today offered to pay for plastic surgery for anyone who gives information leading to the killing or capture of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.

CHECHEN rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, blamed by Russia for last year's school hostage slaughter, has been killed during an army raid, Russian President Vladimir Putin was told yesterday.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has been killed during a “special operation” by Russian forces, a spokesman said today.

SHAMIL BASAYEV, the Chechen warlord who claimed responsibility for the deadly school hostage-taking in southern Russia, released a video statement yesterday to dispel rumours about his death and pledge respect for a rebel truce.

A Chechen rebel leader has told a Russian newspaper a unilateral ceasefire he had announced should help pave the way for peace talks with the Kremlin.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry lashed out at Britain’s Channel 4 television, which was scheduled to broadcast a videotaped interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev today.

RESIDENTS of the grief-stricken Russian school siege town of Beslan marked the end of the 40-day mourning period for the hundreds of victims of the massacre yesterday.

Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov has denied being involved in the Russian school hostage-taking and said another rebel chief, Shamil Basayev, should stand trial for staging it.

RUSSIAN president Vladimir Putin said yesterday the Kremlin was preparing to take preventative action against terrorists, even as a Chechen rebel leader purportedly claimed responsibility for a series of attacks that killed hundreds of people and threatened further violence.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned today that he is preparing to go on the offensive against terrorists.

Radical Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev purportedly took responsibility today for a recent series of deadly terrorist attacks in Russia, but put the ultimate blame for the massacre of more than 330 people held hostage in a school on Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev directed the hostage-taking raid on a school in southern Russia.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said today that Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev directed the hostage-taking raid on a school in southern Russia last week.

RUSSIAN authorities have blamed the Beslan hostage crisis on “international terrorists” and are offering €8.5 million to “neutralise” the Chechen rebel leaders they claim are responsible for last week’s school siege.

Russia’s secret service has offered a near €8.8m reward for accurate information that could help “neutralise” Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov.

Funeral processions filled the rainy streets of Beslan, carrying coffins large and small, as townspeople buried scores of victims of a carefully-planned school siege that prosecutors linked to a Chechen rebel leader.

Russian security officials accused Shamil Basayev of planning the seizure of the school with al-Qaida financing, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported today.

A BOMB targeting a bus carrying workers to Russia's main military base in its turbulent Chechnya region killed three people yesterday, security sources said.

Suicide bombers in a pair of trucks roared up to the headquarters of the Kremlin-backed government in rebel Chechnya and blew them up today, killing at least 65 people and wounding more than 60.