Posted on 09/03/2004 6:34:51 PM PDT by Arthalion
(AP) A commando takes a postition at a seized school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Friday, Sept. 3, 2004....
BESLAN, Russia (AP) - The three-day hostage siege at a school in southern Russia ended in chaos and bloodshed Friday, after witnesses said Chechen militants set off bombs and Russian commandos stormed the building. Hostages fled in terror, many of them children who were half-naked and covered in blood. Officials estimated the death toll at more than 200.
Early Saturday, 531 people remained hospitalized, including 283 children - 92 of the youngsters in "very grave" condition, health officials said.
Sixty-two hours after the hostage drama began during a celebration marking the first day of the school year, the Russian government said resistance had ended.
Valery Andreyev, Russia's Federal Security Service chief in the region, said 10 Arabs were among 27 militants who were killed. The ITAR-Tass news agency, citing unidentified security sources, reported the hostage-taking was the work of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who had al-Qaida backing.
(AP) People carry a stretcher with a victim from a seized school in Beslan, North Ossetia, Friday, Sept.... 
Alla Gadieyeva, 24, who was taken captive with her 7-year-old son and mother, said the militants displayed terrifying brutality from the start. One gunman, whose pockets were stuffed with grenades, held up the corpse of a man just shot in front of hundreds of hostages and warned: "If a child utters even a sound, we'll kill another one."
When children fainted from lack of sleep, food and water, their masked and camouflaged captors simply sneered, she said, adding that adults implored children to drink their own urine in the intolerable heat of the gym.
She and other hostages said there was a little water but no food the first day. The hostages got nothing to eat or drink after that.
Gadieyeva told of three days of unspeakable horror - of children so frightened they couldn't sleep, of captors coolly threatening to kill off hostages one by one. The gym where they were held was so cramped there was hardly room to move.
"We were in complete fear," said Gadieyeva, who spoke to an Associated Press reporter as she lay collapsed with exhaustion on a stretcher outside a hospital. "People were praying all the time, and those that didn't know how to pray - we taught them."
(AP) Bodies of schoolchildren and hostages killed in a school seizure seen in a hospital morgue in... 
The Interfax news agency quoted unidentified sources in the regional Health Ministry as saying more than 200 people were killed. The figure could not be confirmed. Reporters said they had seen at least 100 bodies in the school gym.
Under a grove of trees outside the school, white sheets covered dead bodies, including those of children, on lines of stretchers. Grieving parents and loved ones knelt beside the dead, some of whom were awaiting identification. Nearby, anxious crowds gathered around lists of injured posted on the walls of the hospital buildings.
It was not clear where the tragic end to the siege would leave President Vladimir Putin's tough policy on Chechnya, which has enjoyed broad domestic support despite the heavy toll rebel violence has taken in recent years. He has said the Russian fight in the Caucasus was part of the world's larger war on terrorism.
On the campaign trail in Wisconsin, President Bush said the hostage siege was "another grim reminder" of the lengths to which terrorists will go. World governments joined Washington in condemning the militants.
"It is hard to express my revulsion at the inhumanity of terrorists prepared to put children and their families through such suffering," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said.
(AP) Bodies of schoolchildren and hostages killed in a school seizure seen in a hospital morgue in... 
The State Department issued a public announcement warning U.S. citizens living or traveling in Russia against going to Chechnya and the neighboring regions because of a heightened risk of terrorist attacks.
"American citizens in Russia should exercise caution and remain vigilant and aware of these heightened risks when planning use of or using any form of public transportation. American citizens should also avoid large public gatherings that lack enhanced security measures," the announcement said.
The Arab presence among the attackers would support Putin's contention that al-Qaida terrorists were deeply involved in the Chechen conflict, where Muslim fighters have been battling Russian forces in a brutal war of independence on and off for more than a decade. ITAR-Tass said Basayev received funding for the attack from allege al-Qaida operative, Abu Omar as-Saif.
Russian authorities said they stormed the building after the militants set off explosions and fired shots as emergency teams approached to collect the bodies of several men killed earlier. They said the hostage-takers had given them permission to take the corpses away. Witnesses quoted by Russian media said the militants opened fire on fleeing hostages and then began to escape themselves.
A police explosives expert told NTV television that the commandos stormed the building after bombs wired to basketball hoops exploded in the gymnasium, where many of the children were being held. A captive who escaped told NTV that a suicide bomber blew herself up in the gym.
(AP) Bodies of schoolchildren killed in a school seizure seen in Beslan, North Ossetia, Friday, Sept. 3,... 
Channel One TV reported three of the attackers were arrested after trying to escape in civilian dress. Four militants were believed to have escaped. A member of an elite security unit died saving two young girls, ITAR-Tass reported.
The standoff was declared at an end hours after commandos began their midday assault, when a final large explosion issued from the school, apparently ending a gunfight between three militants trapped in the school basement and security forces trying to free children being used as human shields. Sporadic shooting continued hours later.
A hostage who escaped told the AP that the militants numbered 28, including women wearing camouflage uniforms. The hostage, who identified himself only as Teimuraz, said the militants began wiring the school with explosives as soon as they took control. He, too, said they had placed bombs on both basketball hoops in the gym.
The bomb expert said the gym had been rigged with explosives packed in plastic bottles strung up around the room on a cord and stuffed with metal objects.
The militants, some with explosives strapped to their bodies, stormed the school in Beslan on Wednesday morning and kept the hundreds of children along with parents in the sweltering gymnasium, refusing to allow deliveries of food and 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 said.
Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician involved in negotiations with the militants before they were stormed, called them "very cruel people ... a ruthless enemy."
"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," Roshal said.
Putin's adviser on Chechnya, Aslanbek Aslakhanov, said security forces had not planned to storm the building, but were prompted to move by the first explosions about 1 p.m. Friday. Officials had pledged not to use force.
Russian forces had held back, perhaps remembering the deadly outcome two years ago when security troops pumped nerve gas into a Moscow theater before storming in to free about 800 hostages being held by Chechen terrorists. The nerve gas debilitated the captors but also was the cause of most of the 129 hostage deaths.
As the captives escaped the school, residents and troops ran through the streets, and the wounded were carried off on stretchers. An AP reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood. Four armed men in civilian clothes ran by, shouting, "A militant ran this way."
Streets around the school were a dizzying tableau of chaos as soldiers and men in civilian clothes carried children - some naked, some clad only in underpants, some covered in blood, some bandaged. 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 had removed their clothing 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."
I have a feeling the Russians will not be as cercumspect with the use of force as we might be...
I wholeheartedly agree....a public burning of all the terrorists in custody..and any Muslim terrorist sprayed with pig blood first....
How about a nuke with "Cheers from Beslan" written on it in Russian???
I’m no authority, but I bet it’s exactly the kind of nuclear material that they’ve been using. (If they had it, they would use it.)
What is it going to take for the left to wake up to this insanity. Listening to savage really makes me realize how far gone some leftists are. Sickening.
Whatever it is, al queda has it too.
The terrorists want to do this to our children, too.
Today is the day I began to hate.
I hate terrorists with all my mind, heart, soul, and strength.
The terrorists may have overstepped this time. I pray the world finally "gets it" and work as one to take these monsters out.
I'd prefer to see them use an old IRA method of getting info: Use an electric drill with a large wood boring bit on the kneecaps. Reawaken as necessary, and when both knees are gone, administer alternating solutions of salt and acid to the wounds.
Or just smash their teeth out and stuff a tennis ball in their mouth - one settles right down having to breathe through their nose only.....
Putin should just save time and go to the source -- Nuke Mecca and Medina.
There is only one way to solve the "Islamic" problem and its what the left calls "genocide".
It will be extremely difficult for these subhuman monsters to perpetrate anymore bestial acts if they are all dead.
It will be no loss to the human race and make the world a better place.
Eventuallty the ragheads will get what they have been asking for.
They will all be martyrs.
The only question is how many of us they will take with them before we do what needs to be done.
One can only hope that is the case and they route these bastards out. I just got home from work and first I've seen of these pics. I am sickened. Where are the Amnesty International turds, or the Ramsey Clarks cries of outrage at this carnage? I damn well know some lousy puke at the UN is typing up a condemnation of Russias over-reaction. Russia needs to bring the max down on these f**ks and we need to be there helping them do it. The message is not clear enough yet apparently.
The Muslim population reaching critical mass in some urban areas and want to declare shari law and use terrorism to achieve those means.
I bet my last dollar it will happen within 10 years.
"Dear God, watch over the relatives of these victims. Please keep President Bush in office and give him the strength keep our country at the forefront of this fight against animals that can do this. "
Yes Lord.
Tell your children of that hero. Tell your grandchildren.
In the meantime, write your local newspaper and *DEMAND* that teachers be allowed to be armed, even if those who wish to be armed have to be deputized.
The terrorists *will* attack our schools this way here in the U.S.
Do we want our children to be unprotected as the Left wishes, or do we want them to be protected by the adults in each school?
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
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