An FSB officer who was one of nine Russians taken prisoner by Chechen resistance forces in Itum-Kale Raion in southern Chechnya on 14 March has told his captors that the FSB has shipped some 200 tons of explosives to France in preparation for staging four separate terrorist attacks, chechenpress.com reported on 17 March, quoting the Chechen information agency Kavkaz-Tsentr, which claimed to have received that information by e-mail from the Southwestern resistance front. That front is commanded by field commander Doku Umarov. The alleged FSB agent said the terrorist acts will be perpetrated by four groups, each comprising two FSB agents, and that he was tasked with establishing contact with the Chechen resistance and trying to persuade its representatives to claim responsibility for the attacks after they take place in return for $2 million in cash. Stratfor on 17 March reported that the French authorities \"are taking seriously\" a letter faxed to several French newspapers the previous day warning of imminent terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists, and that French intelligence believes that militant Chechens might be involved in those planned attacks. (RFE/RL)