Here's a news story that ads a little more background on some aspects of the conflict (mostly political) in addition to covering the backgrounds of the identified hostage takers... and they ain't Arab.
Identified hostage takers mostly Chechen: Source
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Con...l=968705899037
Now with Russia's statement that they will "liquidate" terrorist training camps and terrorists were ever they may hide the following lines are important:
"Russian officials have been particularly angered by Britain's granting of asylum to Akhmed Zakayev, an envoy for Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, and the United States' granting of asylum to Ilyas Akhmadov, who was foreign minister under Maskhadov during Chechnya's de-facto independence in the late 1990s."
It should be interesting to see what the US & UK do on the political front regarding these two... will they hand them over or continue to shelter them? If they are sheltered will Russia pursue "other means" to reach these men?