Israeli SWAT Founder Commends Moscow Rescue
By REUTERS
Filed at 4:27 p.m. ET
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The founder of Israel's premier counter-terrorist unit on Sunday commended the Russian handling of the Moscow theater siege and said the casualties from gas inhalation were unavoidable.
``In such rescue operations, one or two dead hostages out of a dozen is considered a success. The same can be said of 100-odd dead out of 800,'' said Assaf Heffetz, who set up and commanded the Israeli police SWAT team, known by its Hebrew acronym Yamam, between 1975 and 1981.
Of the 117 hostages who perished in the theater siege, only two died of gunshot wounds and the rest from gas poisoning, Moscow doctors said on Sunday. Hundreds of freed hostages remained in hospital, including 45 in a grave condition.
Russian special forces stormed the building, where more than 750 hostages were being held by Chechen rebels, many with explosives strapped to their bodies, early on Saturday using an unidentified gas to knock out the hostage-takers. Around 50 Chechen guerrillas seized the theater on Wednesday night.
The Yamam developed strong-arm hostage-rescue tactics which served it well when faced with Palestinian bus hijackings in the 1970s and 1980s, and it regularly trains with foreign counter-terrorist units.
Since a Palestinian uprising for independence erupted two years ago, the Yamam has also carried out more than 500 swoops in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, arresting or killing wanted militants, according to police sources.
Heffetz said Israel had never used gas other than teargas in its operations.
Of the Russian operation, Heffetz said: ``It was a landmark decision. They had an unprecedented dilemma of having to free so many people when faced by so many terrorists. Any hold-up could have meant one of the suicide bombers taking the whole building down.''
``By neutralizing everyone in there, the Russians took the only alternative to surrender. It behooves everyone in counter-terrorism to learn a lesson from these tactics,'' added Heffetz, who also served as Israel's national police chief.
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