MOSCOW, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has canceled official visits to Germany and Portugal, and will not attend an economic summit in Mexico because of the continuing hostage crisis in Moscow, the Kremlin said Thursday.
Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush were expected to discuss the Iraqi crisis on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, but the Kremlin announced Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov would represent Russia instead.
Putin accused "foreign terrorist centers" of masterminding and backing the well-planned Wednesday evening attack by Chechen rebels on a Moscow theater, where about 700 people, including dozens of nationals from 17 countries, were taken hostage. The comments were his first since the hostage crisis began.
Putin summoned Federal Security Service chief Nikolai Patrushev and Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov to discuss available options.
"The main goal of our law enforcement agencies and special services in planning and conducting any operations should be freeing the hostages while ensuring their safety," he told his aides.
On Thursday morning, the rebels released several more women and children hostages, as well as a man identified as a British citizen who fell ill during the night. Between 500 and 700 hostages are still believed to be inside the building.
Several hostages used their mobile telephones to call relatives and confirm reports the rebels had mined the theater, which is in southeast Moscow, to prevent security forces from storming the building.
The rebels, numbering between 30 and 50, are demanding an immediate end to the war in Chechnya and a withdrawal of Russian federal forces from the separatist republic.
The group -- consisting of men in combat uniforms and women in Islamic-style veils -- are armed with automatic weapons and have explosives strapped to their bodies.
They identified themselves as "suicide commandos of the 29th division," ready to die for their cause.
A Chechen rebel Web site identified the leader of the group as Movsar Barayev, the nephew of Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev, who was reportedly killed by Russian federal forces in Chechnya last year. The Web site said the females were mothers who had lost their sons in the continuing war in the separatist republic.
It also said the group had issued an ultimatum that gave the Kremlin seven days to withdraw troops from Chechnya or risk a massacre in Moscow.
"If the issue is not resolved within a week, the building will be blown up with all the hostages," the Web site said.
One of the hostages was allowed to call Ekho Moskvy, a local radio station, to pass on new threats to begin executing hostages.
"They have said they will shoot 10 people every hour if their demands are not met," said the woman, identified only as Anna.
The rebel Web site said the armed group stated as its demand: "stop the war and a rapid withdrawal of Russian (forces) from Chechnya."
Aslanbek Aslakhanov, a legislator representing Chechnya in the State Duma, the lower house of parliament, entered the building in a bid to negotiate the release of some of the hostages, and has held telephone conversations with the rebels.
The rebels said they would not negotiate with Russians but would talk to foreign ambassadors and representatives of the International Red Cross. The Austrian, German, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Latvian ambassadors were at the scene and were ready to negotiate the release of all foreign nationals still held hostage, but the rebels said they would not let the foreigners go.
Two U.S. citizens, three Britons, at least three Germans, two Austrians, two Dutch women, as well as Canadian and Australian citizens are among the hostages.
Two FBI representatives in Moscow were at the scene as consultants, television networks reported.
Russian security forces surrounded the theater, but made no efforts to storm it. The TVS television network said the rebels threatened to execute 10 hostages for each rebel wounded by the police.
Security services told United Press International the first group of special servicemen to arrive on the scene engaged the rebels in an exchange of gunfire, wounding one rebel who was treated by a doctor, one of the hostages. A grenade was thrown at the special forces.
Valery Gribakin, a spokesman for Moscow police, said as many as 40 or 50 armed men and women were among the rebels. He said as many as 150 people, including children, women, Muslims and foreigners, particularly nationals of the former Soviet republic of Georgia, had been released or had managed to escape.
A further 17 people trapped elsewhere in the theater were led out of the building by heavily armed special service officers, and a pregnant woman was allowed by the rebels to walk out of the building.
One woman released said some of the hostages were beaten.
"The passages are full of blood," she told NTV television network.
A French diplomat released by the rebels said the hostage takers, particularly the women, were "very aggressive."
Other women released since then said the situation inside was tense but calm.
A Kremlin spokesman, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said so far there had been no casualties among the hostages.
The hostage-taking began at about 9 p.m. local time Wednesday when armed men arrived in jeeps, entered the theater and disrupted the second act of a performance of a Russian musical hit called "Nord-Ost" by firing automatic weapons.
Women freed because they were married to Georgians or Muslims, and those who had managed to escape, said the rebels warned the audience they would mine the building. The rebels told the hostages, "We are engaged in war."
Five actors locked up in a room by the rebels managed to escape from the theater, officials told UPI.
Russian forces continue to wage a war against Islamic separatists in Chechnya, and fears of terrorist acts against civilian targets in Russia have been on the rise in recent months. Separatist leaders have called for talks with the Kremlin and a withdrawal of Russian federal forces from Chechnya, but Moscow has refused.
