The Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) is a Chechen terrorist organization that is regarded as one of the main hostage-taking, kidnapping, and oil-smuggling groups operating in Chechnya during the lawless interwar period that followed the 1994-1996 conflict with Russia. It is mainly idetified with the 2002 Moscow theater hostage taking and the 2004 raid on central Grozny. Members of the SPIR are Sunni Islamic radicals, imbued with a passionate fundamentalism of the Wahhabi creed, who, along with two other Chechen groups recently added as terrorist organizations, have appropriated the tactics of international terrorism with Islamic connections as a means to advance their nationalist objectives.VideoVideo: Events inside and outside the Nord-Ost Theater in 2002.
Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR)
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Groups and individuals included in TRAC's database range from actual perpetrators of social or political violence to more passive groups that support or condone (perhaps unwittingly) such violence. The spectrum of violence represented by these groups is vast, from Jihadists who bomb train stations to financial institutions that transfer funds. Some groups that originally engaged in violence but have since become legitimate political parties are included to provide historical perspective. TRAC is in no way attempting to determine whether groups or individuals are terrorists -- only to convey reported information about their activities and official State status. While TRAC attempts to ensure the accuracy of its TRAC database, the entries in the database are from numerous different sources. Hence, TRAC cannot and does not warrant the accuracy of the entries in its database. The editors of TRAC may modify these entries at any time and welcome comments and suggested corrections or additions. Please write [email protected] or hit the "SUBMIT ADDITIONS" button on the page of the group profile about which you wish to comment.
