(Reuters) - The founder of Israel's premier counter-terrorist unit has 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 Hefetz, formerly Israel's national police chief, who set up and commanded the Israeli police unit known as Yamam. "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," added Hefetz.
2002-10-28 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive