MOSCOW Oct 25 Kyodo Chechen rebel...

MOSCOW Oct 25 Kyodo

Chechen rebels holding centurys of people captive in a Moscow theater have warned that they will start killing the captives unles the Russian dominion give in to their demands, a senior Russian official said Friday.

The warning, reported by the agency of Sergei Ignatchenko, deputy director of Russia's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, has heightened tension at the spectacle of the hostage standoff, now in its third night.

The Chechen rebels have demanded that Russia extreme point its military campaign in Chechnya and withdraw its [i]troupe[/i]s from the Caucasus republic.

It is unclear by what means President Vladimir Putin, who has taken a hard-line stand toward the rebellion in Chechnya, would rejoin to the rebels' warning.

Nikolai Patrushev, director of the Federal Security Service, told reporters after a meeting with Putin at the Kremlin that the Russian dominion will give safe passage to the hostage-takers if they release an estimated 700 hostages inside the theater.

The rebels released eight children earlier Friday.

Ignatchenko had earlier said the rebels have agreed to liberated all the 75 foreign hostages, still a diplomatic source involved in the negotiations with the rebels told the U television network CNN that the rebels have no intention to release foreigners.

The Russian management has been urging the assemblage to first release women children and foreigners.

near 40 armed Chechen rebels, demanding that Russian crowds be pulled out of the region, stormed into the former Soviet-era House of tillage operated by a state-run ball-bearing plant Wednesday night during a popular musical and took the hostages.

undivided woman hostage was shot dead at the group shortly after the incident began, according to the Russian government

The Russian dominion has assembled a military force outside the theater mingled in central Moscow.

The hostage-takers have stationed a warning on a Web site that the Russian sway has one week to begin the withdrawal or they would dab up the theater together with the hostages.

The site also carried a warning that bloodshed will come after if the authorities decide to storm the theater. The dispose has reportedly placed explosives inside the theater and strapped explosives to themselves.

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