Posted on 09/03/2004 10:04:07 AM PDT by ezfindit
Russians Storm School; 150 May Be Dead By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer
BESLAN, Russia - Commandos stormed a school Friday in southern Russia and battled separatist rebels holding 1,200 hostages, as crying children, some naked and covered in blood, fled through explosions and gunfire. An official said the death toll could be significantly higher than 150.
Three of the separatist rebels were reportedly still blockaded in a school basement, trading fire with security forces. A Federal Security Service official said militants were still holding hostages — children among them.
Hours after much of the school was secured late Friday afternoon, a large explosion erupted from the school toward nightfall, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported.
Ten militants were killed in the violence, including nine Arabs, an aide to President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) said, according to the Interfax news agency. The Arab presence among the attackers would support Putin's contention that al-Qaida terrorists were involved in the Chechen conflict, where Muslim fighters have been fighting Russian forces in a brutal a war of independence for most of the past decade.
The chaotic climax to the hostage standoff began when explosions collapsed part of the school roof and gunfire erupted from inside the building where the militants, some with explosives strapped to their bodies, stormed the school Wednesday moring.
The militants — demanding independence for nearby Chechnya — kept the hostages, mostly women and children, in the sweltering gymnasium, refusing to let in food or water.
"They didn't let me go to the toilet for three days, not once. They never let me drink or go to the toilet," Teimuraz, the escaped hostage told APTN.
After the hostage-takers fled, more than 100 bodies were found in the gymnasium, some apparently killed when part of the school's roof collapsed in the explosion that prompted the Russian security forces to move in.
A Putin aide said the total death toll could be singificantly more than 150 people. An estimated 520 people were wounded, health officials said. The regional health minister earlier reported that at least 218 children were wounded.
Aslanbek Aslakhanov, Putin's top aide on Chechnya, said security forces did not plan to storm the building, but were prompted to move when the hostage-takers set off explosions early Friday afternoon. Witnesses said the militants opened fire on fleeing hostages and then began to escape themselves.
Gunfire rang out for hours as security forces chased hostage-takers, who split into small groups as they fled. Interfax and the ITAR-Tass news agency reported the three militants holed up in the basement may include the head of the group. Another group took refuge in a nearby house where tanks moved in.
Huge columns of smoke rose from the school. Windows were shattered, part of roof was gone and another part was charred. Commandos, residents and journalists scurried around the building and soldiers climbed inside through a lower floor window, all the glass missing.
People ran through the streets, and the wounded were carried off on stretchers. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood. Four armed men in civilian clothes ran by, shouting, "A militant ran this way."
Soldiers and men in civilian clothes carried children — some naked, some clad only in underpants, some covered in blood — to a temporary hospital set up behind an armored personnel carrier. One child had a bandage on her head, others had bandaged limbs. Some women, newly freed from the school, fainted.
The children drank eagerly from bottles of water given to them once they reached safety. Many of the children were naked or only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gymnasium.
"I am helping you," a man dressed in camouflage told a crying girl. Women gathered around, trying to soothe her, saying "It's all right. It's all right."
A cameraman for the British network ITN reported seeing around 100 bodies in the gym. The correspondent for Russia's Interfax news agency reported that there were dozens of bodies in the school, including about 100 in the gym, and that some were killed when the building's roof collapsed from an explosion before the main assault began.
The White House branded the hostage-taking "barbaric" and "despicable" and said responsibility for dozens of lost lives rests with the terrorists. "The United States stands side-by-side with Russia in our global fight against terrorism," spokesman Scott McClellan said. ...
Militants opened fire on fleeing hostages and security forces returned fire. Once the hostage-takers sought to escape, Russian officials apparently made the decision to storm the building.
The militants had reportedly threatened to blow up the building if authorities tried to storm it, but all indications suggested the explosions began before the assault. Russian officials repeatedly said they were not planning to invade and had earlier won the release of 26 hostages through negotiations. Negotiators said the hostage-takers had repeatedly refused offers of food and water througout the standoff.
"They are very cruel people, we are facing a ruthless enemy," said Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician involved in the negotiations. "I talked with them many times on my cell phone, but every time I ask to give food, water and medicine to the hostages they refuse my request."
Gee, I hadn't noticed. [/sarc]
He still isn't willing to own up to the fact that a great number of these terrorists are NOT CHECHEN.
I don't go in for moral relativism, but even if I did, there is a distinction between bombing a city and targeting a school.
Blow yourself, alberloony.
May Almighty God bless you and your sons particularly the one fighting for Freedom, Justice and Humanity.
Speaking of France, have they lifted the ban on scarves, yet?
The difference is that no one has ever intentionally targeted children FIRST. I hope the russians burn your friends out with SS-18 Mod4's ... Chechnya and the muslim world need to be wiped off the f#$%ing map.
"Easily said then done."
There is truth and a bitter humor in your ill-grammared statement.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1206544/posts
Photo Essay of the Victims by TaxRelief.
Glad to see you back, we've missed you.
Civilized people do not commit terrorist acts. Had these scum attacked a military post, one could listen to stories of atrocities.
These dogs attacked a school and murdered innocent kids. Every one of them sould be buried with a pigskin shroud after being slow roasted wrapped in bacon.
"I ask all FReepers to pray for the safety of my son in the IDF, who is on duty in the Jordan Valley & my other son & his family in Moscow."
I've added your sons to my daily prayer book, and you too.
killing these muslims is not terrorism.
it's in this case, justice.
your muslo-terrorist pals started this.
and you want to scream 'terrorists' when they get their well deserved greasing and subsequent eternal damnation.
get out of here troll.
I don't quite understand why the gym ceiling caved in? From an explosion?
I just saw a school bus; hurricane Francis and Mr. Clinton's operation are very newsworthy too; but this is one of those stories that gravitates me to the news.
Some good newslinks to all, as well.
Too late, dumbass.
When children die, on either side the indiscriminate, wanton, murdering sandmaggot savages are exclusively responsible for ALL of it.
A list of incidents blamed on terrorists in Russia since October 2002:
2004
Sept. 1: More than a dozen attackers carrying guns and reportedly wrapped in suicide-bomb belts seize a school in the Russian region of North Ossetia, taking hundreds of hostages, including some 200 children.
Aug. 31: Car blows up outside a Moscow subway stop, killing nine people. Russia's Federal Security Services blame a female suicide bomber.
Aug. 24: Two airliners crash within minutes of each other after taking off from the same airport, killing a total of 90 people. Officials say explosive traces were found in the wreckage. President Vladimir Putin calls the crashes terrorist acts.
May 9: A bomb rips through a stadium in the Chechen capital, Grozny, during a Victory Day ceremony. Provincial President Akhmad Kadyrov, the Kremlin's point man for efforts to control separatist violence in the war-wracked region, is killed, along with up to 24 other people. A Chechen warlord claims responsibility.
Feb. 6: Explosion rips through a subway car in the Moscow metro during rush hour, killing 41 people. Authorities suspect a terrorist attack.
2003
Dec. 9: Suicide bomber blows herself up outside Moscow's National Hotel, across from the Kremlin and Red Square, killing five bystanders.
Dec. 5: Suicide bombing on commuter train in southern Russia kills 44 people. President Putin condemns the attack as bid to destabilize the country two days before parliamentary elections.
Sept. 16: Two suicide bombers drive a truck laden with explosives into a government security-services building near Chechnya, killing three people and injuring 25.
Aug. 1: Suicide bomber rams a truck filled with explosives into a military hospital near Chechnya, killing 50 people, including Russian troops wounded in Chechnya.
July 10: Russian security agent dies in Moscow while attempting to defuse a bomb that a woman had tried to carry into a cafe on central Moscow's main street.
July 5: Double suicide bombing at a Moscow rock concert kills the female attackers and 15 other people.
June 5: Female suicide attacker detonates bomb near a bus carrying soldiers and civilians to a military airfield in Mozdok, a major staging point for Russian troops in Chechnya, killing at least 16 people.
May 14: Woman blows up explosives strapped to her waist in crowd of thousands of Muslim pilgrims, killing at least 18 people in an apparent attempt on the life of Chechnya's Moscow-backed chief administrator, Akhmad Kadyrov, the region's then president.
May 12: Suicide truck-bomb attack kills at least 60 people at a government compound in northern Chechnya.
April 3: Passenger bus hits remote-controlled land mine in the Chechen capital, killing at least eight people.
2002
Dec. 27: Suicide truck-bomb attack destroys headquarters of Chechnya's Moscow-backed government, killing 72 people.
Oct. 25: Chechen rebels took about 800 people hostage in a Moscow theater, demanding that Russian troops withdraw from Chechnya. All 41 attackers were shot and 129 hostages died, most of them succumbing to the gas Russian special forces used when they stormed the theater.
First off,
You have only been here a week and a half, so maybe you need to catch up on some readin' here.
Secondly, most posters are saying, myself included, is that the militants are now the consistant international face and voice of Islam....
Yet, there is little to no damnation from 'true muslims'. Just lots of people sittin' on their hands and crickets chirpin'. There are no Mullahs weekly (or even weakly) raging against the wackaloons, not mass marches by gentle believers, no public outcry by mothers who don't believe in killing babes.
Nothing. I hear abso-effin-lutely nuthin'. The group silence as a whole damns them as a whole. Sorry, but if you took my God and twisted him into the monster these guys have, I would be in your face and in the face of the world damning you to the hell that bore you.
When, and only when I see those who claim that theirs is a religion of peace reclaiming their beliefs from the usurpers... Only then will I believe that it is truly a decent relgion.
Right now, it is just a lot of group hugs and play nice by those on the outside and nothing from those who could make a difference.
That is what burns my toast. Off to make more.
This will turn out to be a very important statement. Wait and see.
Doesn't our government usually refer to the Chechynans as freedom fighters? If so, does this use of th eword terorism in conjuntion with the Chechnyans indicate a change in who our government supports?
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