Russia's islamic revolt is spreading

The Muslims responsible for last week's attack on the southern Russian city of Nalchik consisted mainly of local militants intent on creating a strict Islamic state independent of Moscow.

The gunmen were not from Chechnya but belonged to a group from Kabardino-Balkaria, the Russian republic of which Nalchik is the capital, providing alarming evidence that - far from dying down as claimed by President Putin - the bloody Chechen conflict is spreading.

Most of the gunmen were thought to be members of Yarmuk, a homegrown fundamentalist group that the local authorities twice claimed to have destroyed. Yarmuk has close ties with Shamil Basayev, Russia's most wanted terrorist, who was behind the Beslan school attack.