Parents of Chechen suicide bomber identify their daughter on severed head

The terrorist blasted her Shakhid belt bomb in Moscow center in December of 2003

Chechen investigators managed to identify one of suicide terrorists, who blasted their Shakhid bombs in Moscow's center, near Hotel National, on December 9th, 2003. Six people were killed in the terrorist attack. Investigators made parents identify the severed head of the Chechen national Hedija Magomadova.

Investigators of the Chechen Internal Affairs Department found the terrorist's parents, the Vremya Novostey newspaper writes. The parents identified their daughter on the photograph of her remains. Spokesmen for Chechen special services announced one of last year's most notorious acts of terrorism had been solved. However, a lot of questions connected with the blast near the Moscow hotel are still open.

Particularly, the police still do not know when and how Hedija Magomadova arrived in Moscow, who gave her the task, who hired her and who organized the explosion. The other suicide terrorist's name is still not known either. Shamil Basayev claimed responsibility soon after the attack. Investigators say, however, they do not have any reliable information on the matter.

Investigators found out Magomadova's name in the beginning of July. However, they could not identify her body for a long time. It was difficult to find the people, who would officially acknowledge a relation with the suicide terrorist. Nevertheless, law-enforcement officers managed to search out Hedija Magomadova's parents after a month of hard work. As it turned out, her parents resided in Chechnya, but they had to move from one settlement to another because of the warfare. The two parents recognized their daughter on the picture Chechen investigators showed them. The photograph depicted the terrorist's severed head.

Investigators do not doubt about the reliability of their conclusion. To be absolutely confident, they took the terrorist's mother blood sample to conduct a genetic expertise.

Little is known about Magomadova's identity. Law-enforcement officers refused to comment on the recent information, which said Hedija Magomadova was warlord Ruslan Mangeriyev's wife (the warlord was killed in the summer of 2003). “We do not have any facts to back up this version. The fact her parents identified her was an important accomplishment. As a rule, relatives of killed terrorists and gunmen say they are not sure, or they simply refuse to recognize,” a spokesperson for the Chechen Interior Affairs Department said.