Here's a one-hour-old update on the situation. It looks like the Russian troops have the situation under control. But many hostages have died. Lord have mercy.
This article calls the Chechen bandit "militants" what they really are--TERRORISTS!!!! And the reporters are willing to sign their names and post e-mail addresses. I respect both these things.
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Russian Troops Storm School; Dozens Reported Dead (Update3)
Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Russian troops stormed a school in the country's south as hostages fled the gymnasium where armed terrorists held as many as 1,500 people captive for two days. Dozens of people died, Interfax and CNN reported from the scene.
More than 400 hostages were taken to hospitals, Interfax reported. A cameraman from U.K.-based ITV said at least 100 dead bodies were in the school after the storm, Cable News Network reported. Interfax said ``dozens'' died. An armed group of 28 people wearing explosive belts took over the school Wednesday, demanding Russia grant full independence to Chechnya.
The raid was the fourth Chechnya-related terrorist incident in 10 days. Two passenger planes crashed Aug. 24 after explosions, killing 89 people, and 10 died on Monday evening after a suicide bomb attack near a Moscow subway station. President Vladimir Putin first commented yesterday, calling all four acts ``attacks on Russia as a whole'' as he met Jordan's King Abdullah II in Moscow.
``The feeling of stability has been very seriously undermined by one terrorist attack after another,'' said Alexei Moisseev, an economist at Moscow brokerage Renaissance Capital. ``Instead of addressing the nation, Putin made comments while meeting leaders of other nations.''
Putin's popularity has been declining this year, according to opinion polls by the Moscow-based Levada Center, an independent agency. His approval rating stood at 68 percent last month, down from 81 percent at the start of the year and the lowest level for Putin since December 2000, Levada said, based on surveys of 1,600 people across Russia with a margin of error of 3.4 percent.
Terrorists Opened Fire
Russian soldiers opened fire at terrorists who tried to flee among the hostages, Valery Andreev, a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, said in remarks broadcast on state-run Rossiya television.
As many as 1,500 people, mostly women and children, were taken captive in the school on Sept. 1, Zalina Dzandarova, a former hostage who was released yesterday, said earlier today.
One or more terrorists started firing when Russian rescuers entered the school with the hostage-takers' permission to take out the bodies of between 10 and 20 people killed earlier, Andreev said. A group of 40 children broke out while the bodies were being removed and the terrorists opened fire indiscriminately, he said.
The hostage-takers responded by detonating a bomb, causing the school's roof to partly collapse, Andreev said.
Russian forces blew a hole in the wall of the building where the hostages were being held to create an extra escape route for the captives, Itar-Tass reported, citing eye witnesses.
The armed group had demanded the separation of Chechnya from Russia, North Ossetian President Alexander Dzasokhov told Agence France Presse. Beslan is in North Ossetia, about 60 kilometers west of the Chechen capital, Grozny.
There were no ``clear demands,'' according to Dzugayev.
Chechnya
Russia has about 80,000 soldiers in Chechnya. The republic on Sunday elected Alu Alkhanov president in a vote organized by the pro-Putin government to replace Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in May. Rebels called the elections illegitimate.
Most of the hostages released yesterday ``are in a shock,'' North Ossetia spokesman Murat Biazrov said.
Russian troops invaded Chechnya in August 1999 for the second time in five years to suppress a separatist rebellion. Since then, Putin has refused any compromise, saying the campaign in Chechnya is part of the international war on terrorism. North Ossetia borders Chechnya.
The group seized its hostages during a ceremony to begin the Russian school year. Festivities are usually held in schools across Russia on Sept. 1, with children and their parents wearing their best clothes and carrying flowers for teachers.
Suicide Bombers
Two female suicide bombers detonated themselves on Sept. 1, killing as many as 20 hostages, Dzandarova said, adding that the hostages that she was held with didn't witness the incident. She said the gunmen ``told us they did this.''
Leonid Roshal, director of the Catastrophe Medical Center, talked to the terrorists on at least two occasions and said they had refused to accept food, water and medicine deliveries. Roshal negotiated with Chechen rebels when they took more than 800 hostages at a Moscow theater in October 2002, demanding an end to Russia's war in Chechnya.
At least 129 hostages died then in Russia's worst terrorist attack, when special forces stormed the Moscow theater, ending a three-day standoff and killing all 41 hostage-takers.
The republic's separatist movement fell under the influence of Muslim fundamentalists amid Russian brutality toward civilians in a war from 1994 to 1996, when Arab mercenaries joined the conflict. Russians and Chechens have been criticized by groups such as Amnesty International for mistreating civilians.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Halia Pavliva in Moscow at at hpavliva@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Chris Kirkham at ckirkham@bloomberg.net
Tim Coulter at tcoulter@bloomberg.net
Peter Torday at ptorday@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: September 3, 2004 09:56 EDT
Charles DeGaulle defeated terror in Algiers with terror of his Foreign Legionnaires. But he lost the war. Terror ceases when the price of terror becomes higher for the terrorirsts than the terrorized. But it doesn't mean you win the war.