From the New York Times:

A man who answered the telephone at the school and identified himself as a spokesman for the fighters said they wanted talks with the leaders of North Ossetia and neighboring Ingushetia, as well as with a pediatrician who participated in negotiations with insurgents who seized a Moscow theater in October 2002.

"Wipe your sniffles," the man said, speaking crudely in Russian with a Chechen accent, when asked what they hoped to discuss with the officials. He then hung up.

Russia's defense minister, Sergei B. Ivanov, speaking in Moscow even as the hostage crisis unfolded in the south, said the attacks scourging the country amounted to a state of war.

"War has been declared on us, where the enemy is unseen and there is no front," Mr. Ivanov said. "This is regrettably not the first and I fear not the last terrorist act."

At least one Russian paper has said that the terrorits represent a group called Islamic Battalion of Shahidies Riyadh al-Salihin. However, there is absolutely nothing to be found on the internet about such a group. It is said the group is led by Shamil Bassaev, a notorious Islamic militant leader who has quite a few terrorist actions under his belt.

Via Interfax, the UN will be meeting this evening to discuss the Russia situation:

The UN Security Council will gather in New York at 5:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday (1:00 a.m. Moscow time on Thursday) to deal with the latest terrorist attacks in Russia. "At today's meeting of the UN Security Council, Russian Representative Andrei Denisov will raise the issue of coordinating the council members' response to the recent series of terrorist attacks in Russia," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that has been posted on its website.

UPDATE: Via the weblog Logic and Sanity (which has tons of links and news on the situation):

21 year old Kazik brought his sister to school. He tells the journalist what he witnessed.

Around 9 am, an old truck pulled up and about 20 heavily armed terrorists dressed in black and wear black masks and 4 women with bomb belts came out.
Children started to run. Those who were standing closest to the street were able to make it out. Terorrists starting pushing others towards the building, and throwing some children through windows (inside the building)(!!!).

And elderly woman was shot, and a girl who looked like an 11th grader was shot in the back. She died on the spot.

Kazik's sister is still a hostage.

Soldiers are saying that terorrists are getting bold. They are looking outside the windows, laughing, and seems like they are speaking arabic amongst themselves. They are also yelling in Russian for the authorities to release terorrists who were recently arrested in Ingushetia.

UPDATE

Also from NYT:

The man who answered the phone at the school said he represented the Second Group of Salakhin Riadus Shakhidi, a rebel contingent believed to be headed by Chechnya's most notorious rebel commander, Shamil Basayev.

Apparently I couldn't find much on Basayev before because the name was spelled differently in the previously linked article.

Some interesting stories about Basayev can be found here:

Basayev hijacked a Russian passenger plane and forced it to go to Ankara, where he demanded a press conference to tell the world what was going on in Chechnya. In the end the Turkish authorities let them fly back to Russia without incident.

Basayev continued his guerrilla career, fighting with the rebels in the Black Sea republic of Abkhazia - alongside Russian volunteers - against the Georgian army.

But he really rose to prominence when Russian forces invaded Chechnya at the end of 1994, when he became one of the leading commanders of the Chechen guerrillas.

And here's some chilling stats:

Name: Shamil Basayev
Location: Southern Chechnya
Affiliation: Chechen rebel army
Profession: guerrilla fighter, terrorist, fanatic
Born: 1965
Died: several times, none officially
Claim to Fame: Dubrovka, numerous suicide bombings
Body Count: possibly thousands; at least 200 civilians
Other: alt spelling: Shamil Basaev

The one thing I noticed throughout covering this story today is the lack of anyone officially claiming responsibility. Even some of the finger pointing has been shaky and various Russian news agencies are contradicting others.

This is an interesting analysis of who may be behind this and why.

Initial reports suggested that the Beslan kidnappers demanded the release of the 30 or more suspects apprehended on suspicion of taking part in that raid. (They also reportedly demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.) Eyewitnesses told the independent Ingush website ingushetiya.ru that many of the young men who took part in the June attack were Ingush, not Chechen. The same website also quoted one of them, who explained that he "never used to be a militant" but that he and hundreds of other young Ingush had fled to southern Chechnya and joined the ranks of Basaev's fighters after their relatives were abducted by Ingush Interior Ministry personnel.

Read the rest.

[I'm going to be away from the computer for at least an hour. Check with Logic & Sanity for updates until then]