WAR.WIRE
Russia warns 'terrorists' with cruise missiles
MOSCOW (AFP) Dec 03, 2004
Russia warned Friday that it was prepared to launch cruise missile attacks against suspected terrorist bases outside its borders, with a top general warning that "we will use everything that is at our disposal" for the attack.

"We will use long-range precision cruise missiles and bombs if we get such an order," Russia's air force chief Vladimir Mikhailov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies. "We will use everything that is at our disposal."

Mikhailov did not specify which nations he had in mind or what sparked his warning.

Moscow has previously accused the neighboring former Soviet republic of Georgia of harboring rebels from Russia's war-torn republic of Chechnya.

He separately said that Russia's intercontinental nuclear bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95 will fly sorties over the Atlantic next year, but gave no other details.

Russia periodically stages such exercises, often as a show of its Cold War-era strength at a time of conflict over international affairs with the United States.