Putin praises bus hijack operation

Russian commandos stormed the bus, killing one hijacker

MINERALNYE VODY, Russia -- President Vladimir Putin has praised an operation by armed Russian commandos who stormed a hijacked bus and rescued over 40 passengers.

At least one Chechen hijacker was killed during the incident on Tuesday in the Stavropol region, near the Russian-Chechen border.

The assault came after a tense standoff during which several passengers were released as negotiations were set up.

The dead Chechen gunman -- later identified as Sultan-Said Idiyev -- was demanding the release of five Chechens jailed for another hijacking in 1994.

Initially, authorities said two hijackers took control of the bus. But it was unclear if there had been a second hijacker at all or if the second hijacker somehow escaped or mingled with the passengers.

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The bus, which was heading from Nevinnomyssk to Stavropol, was commandeered at 7 a.m..

It was forced along a major highway toward the airport in Mineralnye Vody, a resort town not far from Chechnya, but it was stopped just outside the airport, which was sealed off and ringed with troops, fire trucks and ambulances.

During the standoff, 12 hostages were released, including a 26-year-old man who had been shot.

Two of the five Chechen prisoners were believed to have been delivered to the Mineralnye Vody airport.

As negotiations continued, anxious passengers could be seen peering nervously from behind the bus' curtains, which were drawn against the intense midday heat.

As the temperature soared past 100 degrees, an airport doctor was allowed on to the bus.

The acting chief of the Nevinnomyssk police department was shot while talking to the hijackers, a security service duty officer said.

Eventually, after more than 12 hours, the commandos went in, setting off concussion grenades.

A sniper shot Idiyev in the head when he peered out to investigate the noise, said Valery Kavtosenkov of the Federal Security Service. Several people on the bus were injured by flying glass

Idiyev had a bomb attached to his body, the Interfax news agency quoted regional prosecutor Robert Adelkhanyan as saying.

CNN's Ryan Chilcote said Russian officials were "elated" that the operation had been completed without serious injuries to any of the hostages.

Russian Special Forces officers head for the scene of the hijacking

He said the gunman had demanded six more sub-machine guns, ammunition and a helicopter at one stage, which had been turned down.

The precisely coordinated action that brought an end to the daylong crisis was praised by Putin.

Putin gave orders in the hijacking "from the very minute it was known that hostages had been taken," Interfax reported.

Mineralnye Vody, about 550 miles south of Moscow, has been the scene of other bus hijackings in recent years.

In 1992, two armed hijackers seized a bus with 18 passengers in Mineralnye Vody and demanded the release of two jailed friends.

The hijackers fled to Chechnya and were given asylum by rebels.

In May 1994, four kidnappers with guns and a grenade grabbed a bus with 29 people, including children, teachers and parents in southern Russia.

They released the hostages in exchange for a multimillion dollar ransom and fled to Chechnya in a helicopter.