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."
Tears and prayers for you little ones.... God please take care of them and strengthen the just to erradicate this kind of evil.
I agree.
But the Russians haven't stooped to the level that the Chechan militants have.
That is my point.
You may fight a rabid dog, but you don't get on all fours to do it.
That is patently untrue. Islam has a long history of war and barbarism. The Wahabbist sect of Islam openly calls for war against the west. Its leaders have called for the murder of 4 million Americans regardless of whether we negotiate or not.
Madrassas from Pakistan to Syria teach their children that Jews are the sons of pigs and monkeys. There is an excellent writing on the subject written by Dore Gold called "Hatred's Kingdom". You might like to read it.
AS much as I would like to think that this will be a defining moment for the Russians and that it will result in them helping us fight the worldwide war on terrorism, I fear it will soon be forgotten. They lost 300 people, we lost 3000. They had one school damaged, we lost two landmark buildings, suffered damage to the Pentagon and lost four airliners. Already we have over half the population that is willing and anxious to vote out of office the man who moved to bring this sort of thing to a halt. It's a waste of breath to advocate stiffer resistance to these animals. If 9/11 didn't convince us of the necessity to strike back as hard as possible nothing short of a mushroom cloud over a major US city or two will do the job.
What was their excuse for killing Russian children?
Same worthless terror-shill excuses that you have been posting all over this forum since you signed up (and all your other banned screennames)
ping
Seeing those pictures... it's just making me cry. Having a child of my own, I don't know how I could even go on living. It would be a very a sad existence.
Sadly to say, you're absolutely right. Columbine proved your point; by the time the SWAT team in its fancy gear entered the building, it was too late.
You're right Jimbo. Muslims of many stripes and many nationalities were celebrating the attacks of 9/11. It ain't a religion of Peace. It took hold of Arabs and turned them from the world's most advanced people in 700 to the world's most backward people today. Arabs are the victims of Islam's hold. So was Malcolm X who fell first to the religion and then to its bullets.
Here's how a real news organization, FOX News reports the correct reality of the situation:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,131345,00.html
Notice the use of the word "terrorists" and "Chechen terrorists" throughout the article. Thank God for Fox News!
http://www.orthodoxnet.com/
Actually they have had two suice bombings in Moscow, two airlines blown up and now this .. and some black widow chechnya tried to blow up the hospital where they took the wounded.
They will not forget ever.
because all muslims are part of the worldwide "UMMAH" their version of the body of ...... I just can't type it.
THEY believe these jihadis are fighting for the greater glory of allah... even the so called moderates believe in jihad.
I don't think we can wait till after the elections to kill them in mass quantities. Showing islamics mercy, as we have done in Iraq and Afghanistan, is not yet proven to bring about a fundamental change in their worshipping allah via the jihad and murder of infidels.
we are going to have to kill or be killed.
killing us, is the primary tenet of their so-called religion.
they must be eliminated to keep us safe and our children from facing the same fate as the russian children we are seeing dead, today.
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