Posted on 09/04/2004 12:20:12 AM PDT by kattracks
September 4, 2004 -- There was a plan, a careful plan of delicate negotiation. But then there were two loud explosions, the plan was blown clean out of the window, and chaos reigned. For what happened next, there was no plan. Ten thousand Russian special forces and Interior Ministry troops ringed Beslan Middle School No. 1. They had been there for three days, and hoped for a peaceful outcome. So, too, did the hundreds of distraught parents held at arm's length by the security cordon.There were already a dozen or so dead within the school, victims of the opening moments of the three-day hostage crisis. A bus carrying four doctors was sent into the school to collect their bodies. Its mercy mission had, by all accounts, been agreed with the hostage-takers within.
At 1:08 p.m. Beslan local time a hot early afternoon several things happened within a matter of a few short, action-charged minutes. Two explosions were heard within the school.
One witness claimed a female hostage-taker with explosives strapped to her waist had blown herself up accidentally; another said a bomb taped to a ceiling inside the school accidentally fell, setting off an explosion.
Young hostages, already deprived of food and water and in a high state of stress, appear to have been panicked by the explosion and made a frantic bolt for freedom.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...

A bloodied boy shouts in terror shortly after escaping the school siege. Hundreds - including dozens of children - were apparently gunned down by the ruthless Chechen gang. EPA
May God take the innocents who died into His embrace and comfort the mourners. May God also deal justly and thoroughly with the murderers. May they rot in a fiery hell.
Yet the Euroweenies begin with the conclusion that the Russian plan was the exact opposite.
Liberals and socialists the world over refuse to see the danger and threat of Muslim terrorists.
Agreed. But only AFTER they are slowly tortured for weeks on end by earthly justice providers.
Lots of NYPost stories, not so much from the NYTs.
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