The Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) was formed by Arbi Barayev during the inter-war years (1996-1999) of the Russo-Chechen conflict. The group's primary objective is the liberation of Chechnya and the formation of an independent Chechen state. To achieve this goal, Barayev forged alliances with other prominent Chechen resistance organizations as well as foreign Islamic groups. After the start of the second Russo-Chechen War in 1999, SPIR greatly expanded its operations and became a significant force against Russian federal forces. <P><br /><br />It was also at this time that the first Islamic militants began entering Chechnya to take up the 'cause' against the Russian infidel.  These 'mujahideen' offered connections to terrorist financers beyond Russia's borders. However, the Islamic fighters held larger aspirations than creating a Chechen state; they promoted a more radical strain of Islam and a desire to install a fundamentalist Islamic republic governed by Sharia law in Chechnya. Yet conventional wisdom holds that Chechen terrorists, such as Arbi Barayev, tolerated the religious zealotry in order to take advantage of the funding and fighters provided by Islamic terrorist organizations. <br /><P><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />As the conflict continued, many observers noted that SPIR and other groups were actually integrating Islamic goals into their primary objectives, alongside Chechen independence. According to press reports, this was due to Amir al-Khattab, who in 1995 arrived in Chechnya from Saudi Arabia to fund separatism from Moscow and to champion Wahhabism, and Osama bin Laden's shared desire to create "one Muslim nation in the Caucasus under fundamentalist rule." Subsequently, millions of dollars per month were funneled into the region to fund this initiative, and shortly thereafter, Chechens began receiving terror training in Afghanistan as well as indoctrination of the Wahhabi creed at various "learning centers" throughout Chechnya. Some reports suggest as many as 1,000 recruits passed through these centers during this time. However, while Chechnya boasts a primarily Muslim population, the populace has demonstrated little allegiance to radical Islam. Ultimately, Chechen terrorist groups, including the SPIR, continue to stress that their primary objective is an independent Chechen state. <P><br /><br />SPIR's most infamous attack came on October 22, 2002. It was one of three terrorist groups affiliated with the Chechen insurgency that furnished personnel to carry out the seizure of the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow. The suicide attackers took more than 900 hostages, whom they threatened to kill if the Russian Government did not meet their demands  --  the complete withdrawal of Russian security forces from Chechnya within a week's time and the recognition of an independent Chechen state. The standoff ended three days later, when Russian Special Forces troops raided the building, killing all terrorists involved.  Over 150 civilian hostages were also killed as a result of the operation.   <P><br />