The Special Purpose Islamic Regiment (SPIR) (Russian: Исламский полк особого назначения), also known as the al-Jihad-Fi-Sabililah Special Islamic Regiment, was a Chechen organization loosely formed by Chechen warlord Arbi Barayev in 1996. It was regarded as one of the main hostage-taking, kidnapping, and oil-smuggling groups operating in Chechnya during the lawless interwar period that followed the First Chechen War(1994-1996) with Russia. It is most notorious for its role in the October 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, when some 800 hostages were taken in the Russian capital; by then, SPIR was headed by Movsar Barayev - the nephew of Arbi (killed in 2001) - and probably never had more than 100 fighters at any given time. It might receive some external assistance from foreign fighters.