Chechnya sparks decade of kidnaps

The hostage-takers want the release of Chechen "fighters"

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- The Russian bus hijacking at Mineralniye Vody is just one in a spree of hostage-taking by supporters of Chechen rebels in recent years.

April 2001 -- One hundred hostages held at a luxury Istanbul hotel are freed unharmed after their pro-Chechen captors give themselves up. The standoff involving 20 gunmen lasts nearly 12 hours before the hostage-takers armed with automatic rifles surrender.

March 2001 -- Three people, including one passenger, one hijacker and a stewardess, are killed when Saudi security forces storm a Russian plane hijacked by suspected Chechen rebels. The deaths at Medina airport come as Saudi authorities lose patience with the hijackers, armed with knives, after protracted negotiations.

February 2001 -- American aid worker Kenneth Gluck of Medecins Sans Frontieres is freed from 26 days in captivity after being taken hostage while working in Grozny, the Chechen capital.

November 2000 -- Russia moves to extradite a "mentally-disturbed" Chechen who hijacked a Russian plane before setting free all 58 onboard unharmed in Israel. Armed with a bomb that turns out to be a fake, he is tricked into leaving the plane at a military airfield in the desert. The Dagestan Airlines plane, carrying mostly football supporters, had been heading to Moscow from Makhachkala, Dagestan's capital. September 2000 -- Three men free four hostages in the Black Sea resort town of Lazarevskoye after demanding a $30 million ransom and the release of all Chechens from jail.

AUDIO CNN's Jill Dougherty: Hijackers wanted to go to the airport 1.4 MB / 130 sec AIFF or WAV sound

December 1998 -- The severed heads of four Western hostages are discovered along a road 25 miles (40 km) south of Grozny two moths after they were abducted by unidentified gunmen. The hostages -- Britons Peter Kennedy, Darren Hickey and Rudolf Petschi, and New Zealand's Stanley Shaw -- were engineers working for Granger Telecom, a British telephone company.

June 1998 -- Gunmen in the region of North Ossetia seize a bus carrying passengers from the neighbouring region of Ingushetia to the town of Mineralnye Vody. The captives are freed unharmed.

April 1997 -- A gunman seizes a bus and holds 26 people captive at the main airport in the Dagestan region before releasing his hostages and being arrested.

September 1996 -- A lone hijacker holds dozens of people hostage on a bus in Dagestan before releasing them unharmed and fleeing.

March 1996 -- A hijacker with a bomb and a handgun seizes a Turkish Cypriot ailiner taking off from northern Cyprus for Istanbul. He says he is trying to draw attention to the plight of Chechnya. The saga ends at Munich airport where the hijacker surrenders, freeing 100 hostages.

January 1996 -- Nine pro-Chechen gunmen, protesting against Moscow's attempt to quell a rebellion by Chechen separatists, hijack a Turkish ship in the Black Sea and keep more than 200 people hostage inclujding 114 Russians for more than three days. The hijackers -- six Turks, two Chechens and an ethnic Abkhaz from Georgia -- threaten to blow up the vessel and their hostages, but the ordeal ends quietly off Istanbul after a long journey through stormy seas.

March 1996 -- Chechen rebels hold 84 Russian builders hostage for a time in Grozny, the Chechen regional capital.

January 1996 -- Fighters seize hostages in neighbouring Dagestan, then move to the village of Pervomaiskoye just outside Chechnya. Most rebels escape, but many people are killed.

September 1995 -- Russian commandos storm a hijacked bus in Makhachkala, regional capital of Dagestan, freeing 18 hostages and arresting two gunmen who had held them for more than 12 hours.

June 1995 -- Rebels seize hundreds of hostages in a four-storey hospital in the Russian town of Budennovsk. More than 100 die in the course of the rebel assault and a botched Russian commando raid. The rebels are allowed to leave in a bus convoy after five days in exchange for freeing their captives.

October 1994 -- A lone hijacker seizes a Yak-40 airliner in Makhachkala with 22 passengers and five crew on board and demands a big ransom. Most hostages are released within 24 hours. The man blows himself up as police commandos storm the aircraft.

July 1994 -- Four gunmen seize 40 passengers on a bus, demanding money and a helicopter. They try to take off from Mineralnye Vody with some hostages and a ransom on board. Police storm the craft, leading to a debacle in which four hostages and one hijacker are killed.

June 1994 -- Three gunmen seize a busload of passengers near Mineralniye Vody, demanding a ransom and a helicopter. Police free the hostages the following day, capturing the gunmen as they try to flee with their ransom.

May 1994 -- Four Chechen kidnappers seize a school bus on its way from Vladikavkaz to Stavropol in southern Russia. They release most of the children, but take four hostages on a helicopter across southern Russia with explosives and a ransom. Police commandos seize the armed men and free the hostages after helicopter lands at Bachayurt in Chechnya.

December 1993 -- Armed men seize teenagers in a school classroom in Rostov-on-Don and take them on a dash by helicopter around southern Russia. Authorities arrest four kidnappers in Makhachkala and free the hostages.

Reuters contributed to this report.