[grania]

The circumstances looked mighty grim, what with the whole structure packed with explosives. I'd say the outcome is about as good as could be reasonably hoped for.

I was afraid we were going to wake up this morning to images equivalent to the World Trade Center. According to the article, the number of dead is still unknown. It is not known how many are "liquidated" (love that word choice) hostagetakers and how many are hostages. There was also some mention of people who looked dead, but were asleep from whatever gas was used.

The horror of these situations...it just doesn't get easier. It sounds like the Russians did as well as possible, in a very bad situation.

[Sacajaweau]

This could have had a much worse ending. The raid appears successful with minimum losses.

To those "good" Russian folks and the children who were held capitve, we pray that your terrible memories will slip quietly to the back of your minds and wish you all good things.