Russian prosecutors say they have arrested four people in connection with the school siege in Beslan last year, which left more than 330 people dead.

Deputy Prosecutor General Nikolai Shepel said the four were suspected of helping plan the siege in North Ossetia and other attacks in Ingushetia.

He said five other suspects were killed as they resisted arrest.

A BBC regional analyst says the Russian authorities are keen to show they are in control in the region.

Mr Shepel did not say when or where the latest arrests took place.

“These people helped prepare the terrorist act in Beslan,” he said.

Read more..

The net appeared to be closing around one of Russia’s two most wanted men last night after Chechnya’s Moscow-backed authorities said they had cornered the breakaway region’s long-sought rebel president, Aslan Maskhadov.

Ramzan Kadyrov, deputy prime minister in the region’s Moscow-friendly government, said that he “had every reason to believe” Maskhadov and his associates were trapped by his forces in a forest in south-east Chechnya.

Officials said they had picked up the call signs of Maskhadov’s closest aides in radio traffic from the cornered rebels, as well as numerous tip-offs that he was in the area. Mr Kadyrov said he hoped to capture Maskhadov alive after “liquidating” the armed gang surrounding him, which, he said, was led by the rebel president’s most senior bodyguard, Akhmed Avdorkhanov. Rebel sources said some of Maskhadov’s most senior aides were trapped but denied that he was present.

Read more...

More about Maskhadov here.

From the Guardian Unlimited:

Two of the militants who took part in the Beslan school hostage siege phoned the Middle East during the drama, a senior source from the Russian security services has said.

The official said two calls were made from Beslan in Arabic, and that “one call was to Saudi Arabia by one of the Arabs who was there”.

The report supports the Kremlin’s strongly held view that a link exists between terrorist groups sympathetic to al-Qaida and Chechen separatists.

This story has, of course, been reported in the Russian online media. At lenta.ru, for example, the story appeared with the headline rewritten to read: “Terrorists called Saudi Arabia from the Beslan school” (Russian original: Террористы звонили из бесланской школы в Саудовскую Аравию).

Cheers…

AP: Israel Sends Experts to Help Russia

Israel has sent intelligence officers to Russia and is hosting at least two senior Russian officers in Tel Aviv — quietly moving to upgrade anti-terror cooperation with Moscow in the wake of a series of devastating attacks in Russia, officials told The Associated Press.

The Israeli moves come as President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) revamps Russia’s anti-terrorism capabilities after a school seizure by separatists in southern Russia ended with the deaths of at least 330 hostages, including many children.

A team of Israeli intelligence officers arrived discreetly in Russia shortly after the hostage standoff to discuss a program to share Israeli expertise, said three officials close to the mission.

Because of the political sensitivities surrounding the contacts, the officials asked that their names and nationalities not be revealed.

The officials said Russia was particularly interested in learning more about airport and air-traffic security in light of the Aug. 24 bombing of two Russian passenger jets.

The officials said the main purpose of the trip was to explain to Russia how Israel can help. The Israeli team has returned to Israel and is awaiting word on whether Russia will accept the offer of greater cooperation, the officials said.

At the same time, at least two senior Russian officers have arrived in Israel to examine a police anti-terrorism facility, said an Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Details about the contacts remained sketchy. Both Israel and Russia have been loath to divulge much information about their cooperation.

Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too.

This Regional Briefing focuses on the enigma that is Russia, via Joel Gaines of No Pundit Intended. Joel is a veteran of the Gulf War with the 3rd Armor Division, where he worked in an intelligence capacity. He speaks Russian, and has worked in several of the former soviet satellites.

TOP TOPIC:

• Beslan School Terror: You can immediately help the victims: Please visit the International Foundation for Victims of Terror Acts for more information.

• In North Ossetia, Beslan School #1 was the target of a brutal and senseless act of terror. Islamo-fascists from the Chechen region, augmented by terrorists from Ingushetia held more than 1200 in a state of siege in the school’s gymnasium. The siege ended when one of the improvised explosive devices detonated - killing and wounding hundreds.

• The attack was a severe blow to Russia’s attempts to stay above the fray, known as the War on Terror, which impacts so many other nations. The Chechen separatist leaders, Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev, have been implicated by the FSB as having a direct involvement in the attack.

• The hero of Beslan: Yanis (Ivan) Kanidis, a 74 year old gym teacher, who died that more of his children might live.

Other Topics Today Include: Three economic growth scenarios, YUKOS woe deepens, Putin’s controlled democracy, Russia’s dismay about Chechen attacks,Alu Alkhinov is new Chechen president, US/Russia relations hurt?, Georgia and S. Ossetia still at it, assassinated with a BB, Introducing the T-90 tank, terrorists targeting nuke sites.

• Multiple Terrorist Attacks
• Russia’s Economy
• Internal Politics
• Chechnya
• International Relations & Security
• Paging Mr. Bond…

A very interesting debate between Bill Herbert and Lewy 14 in Winds’ comments section the other day addressed the breadth of reaction to Beslan in the Arab/Islamic media, and what constitutes a real and sincere condemnation of terrorism. A very useful dfiscussion, indeed.

Now Donald Sensing links to a compilation of translations by MEMRI, with many more examples from around the Arab media. From MEMRI:

“Some columnists condemned the use of terror and the harming of innocent civilians, others criticized the Russian forces’ failed rescue attempt, and a few even blamed Jewish elements of being involved in the affair. In addition, many articles argued that the terrorists do not represent Islam and that Islam does not endorse violence. They also aimed sharp criticism against Muslim leaders and clerics who incite against civilians in the name of Islam.”

We pay attention when the Islamists preach war, death, and hate - and we should. But just as we ask our media to report the good news with the bad in Iraq, we need to hew to the same ethic as we cover the crisis within Islam. There is a growing debate in the Arab world. Read the translations, then decide for yourself which articles are worthy of respect, and which of them illustrate the shameful attitudes that enabled Beslan to happen.

Russian security officials identified 10 of the Beslan school hostage-takers Thursday, confirming that six of them came from the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

Four others were from Ingushetia, the republic bordering North Ossetia, where last week’s siege that ended in the deaths of at least 326 children and adults took place.

So far, regional security sources have not provided any information to back up Russian President Vladimir Putin’s earlier allegation that about 10 of the approximately 30 hostage-takers were “Arabs” from the Middle East and might have been linked to al-Qaeda.

Read more…

Russia is ready to deliver preventive strikes at terrorists’ bases the world over, chief of the General Staff Yuri Baluyevsky stated on Wednesday.

“As for preventive strikes at terrorists’ bases, we’ll certainly take all actions to eliminate terrorists’ bases in any region of the world,” Baluyevsky told reporters after a meeting with NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe James Jones.

“It does not mean that we’ll deliver nuclear strikes,” he noted, the choice of means of destruction will depend on the situation in a given region.

Russia offered more than $10 million for information that helps “neutralize” two well-known rebel leaders from breakaway Chechnya accused of planning the school hostage standoff that killed at least 326 people last week, news agencies reported Wednesday.

The reports of the reward came a day after Russians got a horrific glimpse of the drama from video footage filmed by the militants who captured the school in southern Russia. Tens of thousands of people turned out at a government-backed rally in Moscow to condemn the terrorists and demand justice

The two leaders with the bounties on their heads are Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev.

Maskhadov is a Chechen general who was elected president of Chechnya in 1997; Basayeve is a notorious Chechen terrorist who is said to be responisble for over 200 deaths through terror tactics. Both men are thought to be the masterminds of the Beslan massacre.

12 of the terrorists who took part in the siege have been identified. While no details have been given about their identities, it is said that they were all in part responsible for the June attacks in North Ossetia and Ingushetia that killed dozens of people.

Here’s a interesting piece of information, translated by Stan at Logic and Sanity.

Shamil Basayev’s official mouthpiece - kavkazcenter.com - has a new conspiracy theory. As I reported earlier, some of the terrorists who took part in the murder of students in Beslan, were supposed to be doing time in russian jails. Basayev’s PR is claiming (here), that the FSB has taken those jailed terorrists, killed them and put their bodies on the scene in Beslan in order to frame Basayev.

Kulaev has been brought out from prison in order to give false testimony, they claim.

Related stories.

Waving flags and banners, tens of thousands of Russians demonstrated against terrorism Tuesday, massing outside the Kremlin in response to calls for solidarity by President Vladimir Putin’s government after a series of deadly attacks that have killed more than 400 people.

The growing crowd stood still for a moment of silence in memory of victims, starting the rally after a clock atop the Kremlin’s Spassky Tower struck 5 p.m.

Read more

Related stories.

[All previous posts on this story can be viewed here.]

Guardian:

Vladimir Putin, last night refused to order a public inquiry into how the Beslan school was captured by gunmen and then ended with such a high death toll, and told the Guardian that people who call for talks with Chechen leaders have no conscience.

“Why don’t you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace? Why don’t you do that?” he said with searing sarcasm.

“You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are childkillers?

“No one has a moral right to tell us to talk to childkillers,” he added.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but Margaret Thatcher, whom I’ve met more than once said: ‘A man who comes out into the street to kill other people must himself be killed’,” he told the Guardian.

Basayev Directed the Seizure by Phone

According to the information the Washington Post received from the Russian officials, the seizure was directed by 4 people, including “a bodyguard of Basayev’s and a former police officer who turned against authorities and led a bloody attack in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia last June… All four leaders were killed in the battle at the school.”

Further down in the article, comes this:

We also think it a shame that the respected newspaper, like many other western media, calls the beasts, who shot at our children’s backs, such words as “prisoners” “insurgents,” “rebels,” “hostage-takers,” “militants” and even “guerillas!” The UN has labeled them terrorists - why don’t the press?

Indeed.

This WaPo article reports that Russian special services have surveillance tapes of the terrorists arguing with each other and also quotes from the one terrorist who has been captured:

“We gathered in the forest and the Colonel — it’s his nickname — and they said we must seize the school in Beslan,” said the man, who had short, dark hair and no beard. He said the orders came from Basayev and another Chechen commander, Aslan Maskhadov, and that his group included Arabs and Uzbeks as well as Chechens and people of other nationalities. “When we asked the Colonel why we must do it, he said, ‘Because we need to start war in the entire territory of the North Caucasus.’ “[aslo reported here]

I’ll leave off, for now, with this:

Sveta Aylyarova, a 6-year-old first-grader, arrived in an open coffin, its top carried separately by six men. Her body was veiled in lace, and atop her legs was her pink teddy bear.

“She was a beautiful, smart little girl,” said Khazbi Aylyarov, the oldest relative standing in front of the coffin, restraining his grief so he could get the words out.

And then the coffins were shuttered with final, haunting bangs before they were placed in the red-bricked holes. Pieces of concrete were lowered on top before dirt was shoveled into the hole by young men, rain streaming down their faces.

Posted by Michele at 08:36 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

An amazing story of survivors of a different kind…

JERUSALEM POST: ‘We thank God we are here in Israel’

Flipping channels in her Bat Yam home, Natalia Cheldaev saw the school her daughter Vilena had left just five months earlier when the family immigrated from Beslan, Russia. Confronted with horrifying images of the school held hostage by terrorists and the faces of people she knew, she reached for the phone.

“I immediately tried calling my former neighbors, but no one was answering,” she said. “I found out that building was cleared out by special forces since it is next to the school.”

The special forces might have left, but that doesn’t mean the residents have returned.
“Our apartment building is all empty now,” Cheldaev said, listing those who perished in the tragedy, including her best friend and her son, who had been Vilena’s best friend.

“All those people who were seeing us off, half of them are now dead,” she continued. “I still cannot comprehend what has happened.”

Neither has her daughter, who has been told that the friends she asks about are wounded and in the hospital. “So many of her friends are dead. She won’t be able to handle it.”

Read the rest (registration required)

Alarm bells are ringing in Russian media circles after the alleged poisoning of Anna Politkovskaya, one of the most outspoken critics of Vladimir Putin’s policy on Chechnya, and the apparent sacking of the editor of Izvestia today.

Politkovskaya, who writes for the current affairs magazine Novaya Gazeta, was on her way to the siege in Beslan from Moscow when she collapsed mysteriously.

According to the Moscow Times today, “Politkovskaya was flying from Vnukovo Airport to Rostov-on-Don and fainted on the plane. Immediately after landing, she was taken to a local hospital, where doctors found she had been poisoned, Novaya Gazeta editor Dmitry Muratov told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.”

Read more..

[link source: Allah Pundit]

I didn’t intend for this to be my first blog entry on Winds of Change since my return from DC, but I thought it might help to supplement Armed Liberal’s earlier remarks on Chechnya and in particular the people who orchestrated the wave of terrorism that has killed upwards of 500 Russian civilians since last week.

This should in no way be seen as an endorsement of Russian policies in Chechnya, which have been worse than brutal - they’re simply ineffective. I’ll conclude with a link to a reputable organization that is seeking to raise money for the victims of this tragic act of barbarism.

A little background

First of all, claims that this has to do with the Russian military presence in Chechnya completely misunderstand the situation….[Read The Rest…]

Russian state-run television says the government has a man in custody who was part of the group responsible for the deadly school siege in Beslan.

The network showed footage of the man, whose name was not given, being heavily guarded by commando forces.

The suspect, who spoke on camera, proclaimed his innocence.

“Of course I pitied the children, I swear to Allah. I have children myself. I didn’t shoot. I swear to Allah,” he said. “I don’t want to die. I swear to Allah, I want to live.”

Read more…

And here he is:

More on that from ingushetiya.ru, translated by Stan at L&S:

The only terrorist caught alive was shown on channel 1, today. His last name is Kulov - a Chechen.
He was born in the Nozhai-Urt region, Chechnya, but lately resided in Karabulak, Ingushetia.

Kulov told the investigators that the band was led by a Chechen, who went by the nickname “Polkovnik” (Colonel).
Only Polkovnik and Hodov* knew where the group was going. After the school was seized, the terrorists quarreled - many were unhappy with the fact that the hostages were children. Polkovnik personally shot one of the terrorists and even blew up the two female suicide bombers (via a remote) to show that he meant business.

According to Kulov:

- there were a total of 32 terrorists in the group. (30 bodies have been found. Kulov was caught, meaning that 1 got away)

- He doesn’t know any last names or ethnicities of the other members in the group. The terrorists called each by arab names to avoid using their real names.

- There wasn’t a black man amongst them - authorities mistook one of the terrorists for one, because he was burned and his face got covered with soot, during the storm.

The more we hear from the hostages, the worse it gets.

AFTER more than 24 hours in the sweltering heat of the school gymnasium in Beslan, one of the boys trapped inside could not take it any longer.

Summoning up his courage, he approached a hostage taker with a bayonet fixed to his assault rifle and asked him for a drink. It was probably the worst error that he could have made.

“Instead of giving him water, he drove his bayonet through the boy’s body,” said Stanislav Tsarakhov, 10, another captive standing nearby. “I don’t know if he died.”

The death toll now stands at 394.

UPDATE: I had heard this but I refused to believe it. But there’s a witness corroborating the rumors:

They raped the teenage girls.

[All previous posts on this story can be viewed here.]

But the final death toll may exceed 400.

From ITAR-TASS via the AFP and thence the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Police have arrested three suspects who they believe played a part in organising the hostage taking of a Russian school that resulted in hundreds dead, ITAR-TASS news agency reported today.

”All three of them are admitting to guilt,” the news agency quoted North Ossetian interior ministry spokesman Ismel Shaov as saying.

“According to their testimony, we hope to find the people who ordered this attack,” he said.

He said one of the three was believed to have been linked to previous alleged terror attacks.

According to the latest official toll, 330 people, half of them children, died in the three day stand-off that ended Friday in a six-hour gunfire exchange.

However, a worker at the main morgue that received bodies from the school told AFP that 394 corpses from the incident have been received to far.

Sky News: Putin Pledges Crackdown

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to crack down on anyone supporting the gunmen behind the school siege in Beslan.

“One of the tasks pursued by the terrorists was to stoke ethnic hatred and blow up the whole of our North Caucasus,” Mr Putin told local security officials.

“Anyone who will feels sympathetic towards such provocations will be viewed as accomplices of terrorists and terrorism.”

Mr Putin was speaking after making an unannounced visit to Beslan, in North Ossetia.

Bloomberg News reports the death toll is now at 322; half of them children.

Regional Borders Closed:

President Vladimir Putin ordered the borders of North Ossetia closed Saturday as security forces searched the southern region for militants who escaped the Russian storming of a school where they had held hundreds of people hostage, many who fled the building under fire.

Which absolutely contradicts this report from Interfax:

total of 26 terrorists were involved in the school seizure in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky told journalists in Beslan on Saturday.

All the hostage-takers have been killed, he said in an interview broadcast during the Rossiya television station’s Vesti news program.

“Twenty-six bodies of militants were found and removed from the scene. We have no doubts that they are the people who took part in the terrorist attack. They are being identified at the moment,” the deputy prosecutor general said.

Asked by a journalist whether any of the terrorists may still be on the run, Fridinsky said: “Most likely, no.”

Asked whether any of the terrorists have been detained, the deputy prosecutor general answered in the negative.

“Looking at the results of all investigative operations conducted until today, we don’t think a single person managed to escape,” he said.

“There were a total of 26 people [militants]. And I think that this is the final figure,” he said.

UPDATE:

The death toll has risen to more than 300.

More than 80 are in critical condition.

President Vladimir Putin promised on Saturday a tough response to what he called an “all-out war” by terrorists against Russia, as the body count from the school hostage-taking rose to more than 340 dead and some relatives still searched for their loved ones amid the confusion.

A grim-faced Putin addressed the nation on television after a pre-dawn visit to the scene of the hostage-taking in Beslan. In a suprise admission of weakness, he said Russia’s past response to terrorism had been insufficient and said he would carry out wide reforms to strengthen the security forces.

“We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten,” the former KGB spy said.

Putin offers his condolences in a televised address:

“It is a difficult and bitter task to speak. A horrid tragedy has happened in our land. Throughout the past few days, each of us has been suffering deeply and has been putting through their heart all that was happening in the Russian town of Beslan, where we came face to face not just with murderers but with people who were using weapons against defenseless children,” Putin said in a televised address.

“And now may I offer words of support and compassion primarily to people who have lost what was the most precious thing in their life. Their children, their near and dear,” he said.

“I ask you to think of all those who have died at the hands of the terrorists in the past few days,” he said.

He declared Monday and Tuesday national days of mourning. National flags are to fly at half-mast, entertainment events and radio and television programs scheduled for those days are to be canceled.

Posted by Michele at 12:16 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack

[Ed note: This is far from a complete timeline events, but it traces the major points from the start of the crisis until the Special Forces declared the ordeal over. It will most likely be updated to include more personal accounts. There are graphic images inside.]

Wednesday, September 1

• Approximately 9 a.m.: Terrorists armed with guns and some wearing suicide belts stormed the Belsan school as children and parents arrived for the first day of classes.

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 window….

”9:10am I walked my son (5th grader)to school. Two minutes after we walked into the court yard came the terrorists. There were about 20 of them and also 2 females. They herded us inside the school through the corridor and windows. Right away they killed 12-20 men - one at a time. Then a tank arrived and killed one of the terrorists, so they put several hostages next to a window and shot them dead. They threatened to kill 10 hostages for their dead, but I only saw about 4.

• At about noon, gunfire could be heard coming from the school, as well as explosions. Reports that there are between 200-400 people inside the school.

One woman spoke of trip-wires and bombs.”She said the gunmen had their feet on switches and were threatening to blow the school up. ‘They have the eyes of madmen,’ she said.

• Some time that afternooon, Ruslan Balgatov, the mufti of North Ossetia, attempted to negotiate with the terrorists, who refused to have talks with the Islamic leader. The terrorists then demanded to meet with the presidents of North Ossetia and neighboring Ingushetia.

• Approximately 4pm,. More shots were heard in the school.

It seemed to me that there were ten rebels and two women with them. The women went around and took away everybody’s cell phones. They said that, if anyone had a phone hidden, they would kill 20 people for it. Then the women disappeared. I didn’t see them again. All the rebels but one took off their masks. One of them had a deep, frightening scar on his neck. He was the kindest of them. Another, who had a long beard and seemed to be the leader, was very mean. When one of the women pulled her clothes off her legs above the knees, he yelled at her to cover herself, berated her and said that we all had to pray to Allah, because Islam is the truest faith. We all prayed, of course, but to our own Gods.

• Around 4:30 p.m. at least 12 children and one adult escaped. They had been hiding in a boiler room, where they ran to right after the terrorists stormed the building.

Geor Batsazova, 13: “All I want to do is see my mother again. We should get those Chechen with knives.”

Russia news sources report that a 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. Basayev’s people later denied that allegation, though it turned out that Basayev did, indeed, have something to do with it.

Evening: Terrorists make demamds known.

The armed men taking hostages at a school in Russia’s North Ossetia republic have demanded the release of terrorists captured in the neighboring Ingusetia republic, Itar-Tass news agency said.They also demanded the arrival of North Ossetian president Alexander Dzasokhov, Ingush President Murat Zyazikov and Doctor Leonid Roshal.

• 7:30 p.m.: Contact is made with the terrorists. They agree to let pediatrician Dr. Leonid Roshal into the building.

Thursday, Sept. 2

• About 9am, Russian authorities rule out the use of force.

Relatives of hostages stand around outside the building, waiting for word of their family members.

“No one tells us anything. Some people say the terrorists are Chechens. Some people say they are Arabs. But we don’t know” — Nikolai Dzaparov, husband and grandfather of two hostages.…

• Afternoon: Talks in school gym between hostage takers and Ruslan Aushev, Afghan war hero and former president of neighboring Ingushetia region.

On Thursday, a man in a black suit wearing a black mask appeared among the rebels. We could tell from the moustache sticking out of the mask that that was Aushev. He spoke to the rebels with an assured attitude and we began to hope for release. Aushev went into the teachers’ room with the director of the school and some of the rebels. They didn’t speak for long. Then Aushev left and the director came back to the gym and broke into tears. And we all understood that it didn’t work out.

• 4:45 p.m.: Twenty-six hostages released:

Camouflage-clad soldiers carried crying babies away from a school where gunmen holding hundreds of hostages freed at least 26 women and children Thursday during a second day of high drama that kept crowds of distraught relatives on edge.

Most of the freed hostages came out wearing only underwear. Some were naked.

Hostage Ilfa Gagiyeva: “We were all undressed. It was like a sauna in there. No water or food and we were all burning up with fear.

Some quotes from Dr. Roshal, who has been in contact with the terrorists:

“I am in uninterrupted talks with one Shoikhu-I am not sure I’ve got the name right. The man has introduced himself as [terrorist] press attache. They would not give food, water or medicines to the kids and adults in the school. The man says he is a highlander. I told him highlanders never behaved that way.”

“The release of an initial 26 hostages is certainly a victory-but it’s a mere drop in the ocean. The very fact of someone set free is a big achievement, but a huge job is ahead yet.

[Image from Yahoo. Click for larger version]

Friday, Sept. 3

• Early morning, more loud bangs and gunfire come from inside the building.

• Released hostages inform authorities that there are more than 1,000 hostages inside the building.

One of the released hostages, Adel Itskayeva, told a Gazeta correspondent there were 1,020 hostages in the seized school. When the woman was told the official data - 354 hostages, she was more than just surprised: “Are you crazy? There are 1,020 people in there!” the woman said. [Pravda]

• Around 9am, there are reports that 20 hostages inside the building have been killed.

• Afternoon: Terrorists agree to allow Emergencies Ministry workers to pick up bodies of people killed in the first minutes of the siege. The bodies had been laying outside since yesterday morning.

• As the ambulances approach, explosions are heard. At first, it is thought that the Russian troops have stormed the school, but what happened was the terrorists set off powerful explosives, thinking that the rescue workers were really commandos. The explosions blew the roof off the building.

When they approached the building, the main doors, which had a tripwire attached to it, opened and we saw several of the rebels. The bandits were either checking the explosives or adding some more, and that was when the first blast went off. The doors were blown away with parts of the wall. More rebels showed up almost immediately and started firing randomly. Obviously, they thought they were starting to storm them. They beat the rescue workers. It was clear that they thought they were special forces in disguise.

• At about 1:30, hostages start fleeing the building. Terrorists open fire on them, shooting many children in the back. The commandos return fire. At least 30 women and children have been led to safety at this point.

“They shot at our backs as we were running out of the school. I heard the whine of the bullets. One of the girls who was running close to me was wounded. Two of my friends picked her up and carried her. There were about 50 of us, boys and girls, all senior pupils. Only the older kids could run away. As for the younger pupils, they just couldn’t get out of that hell because the terrorists had blocked all the ways out for them. So they could only stay there and watch us running away.”

During the day on Friday, I was lying on the windowsill with my face covered with a piece of paper and an explosion went off there in the gym. It deafened me and blew me out the window. It was two meter to the ground. After I fell, a terrible shootout began. I understood that I couldn’t stay there and started to run. I don’t know where I ran. I crawled over some sort of fence and found myself between two garages. There was a sheet of wood there. I covered myself with it and lied there. I felt explosions going off from different sides but, fortunately, they didn’t reach me. I only got scratched on the forehead.

• The roof of the gym has collapsed from the explosion, killing many of the children who were still inside.

• At this point, some of the terrorist begin fleeing the building and running into the surrounding town. Commandos storm the school building.

• About a half hour later, more and more hostages are running from the building. Rescue workers blow holes in the side of the school to help the hostages escape. At least five terrorists have been killed at this point.

• Thirteen escaped terrorists who fleed the school are reportedly holed up in a private home in the area. The home is subsequently surrounded by tanks. At least one terrorists is caught by residents. At first it’s reported that they killed him, but that turned out to be untrue.

• There is still gunfire and explosions going on at the school.

• An ITN reporter says that 100 bodies are in the gym, where roof collapsed. Over 500 people have been taken to area hospitals at this time.

• Mine disposal begins.

“The terrorists placed numerous mines in the gym, which are stuffed with bolts and screws to make them more injurious. They are being destroyed by a sapper battalion of the 58th Army,” he said.

• Towards evening, it is known that at there are still terrorists in the building with hostages.

About five of the guerrillas who seized a school in Russia’s North Ossetia region on Wednesday are still inside the building and “are covering the withdrawal of the other bandits.” [Interfax]

Later, it was determined that

• Later in the evening, it’s announced that at least 10 of 20 dead terrorists were Arab mercenaries. Officials are putting the death at more than 150.

• At this point, 60 hostages have been confirmed dead and identified.

[Reuters image]

• 7:50 p.m.: A strong explosion sounds in school building where hostages had been held, and gunfire continues.

Later in the evening, this report:

“Six hundred and forty-six people, including 227 children, were hospitalized following the terrorist act in Beslan,” sources in the Russian Ministry for Civil Defense and Emergencies and the North Ossetian Health Ministry told Itar-Tass.
“The majority of patients have bullet wounds in the back,” the sources said.

• At 10:45 p.m., Special forces (Spetsnaz) have completed the operation in Beslan.

At least 200 hostages have been declared dead.

Schoolboy to soldier who carried him to safety: “Thank you very much, sir.”

[Other Link credit: Allah Pundit, Rusty Shackleford, Logic & Sanity, Belmont Club, Yahoo Photos,Interfax, MosNews]

HELP THE FAMILIES OF BESLAN WITH A DONATION

Updating a previous post, from the AFP via The Australian :

A US National Guard soldier was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of trying to aid the al-Qaeda network, authorities said today.

Specialist Ryan Anderson, who converted to Islam, was sentenced by a nine-officer jury in a court martial at the Fort Lewis Army base south of Seattle, in the northwestern state of Washington.

“He was sentenced to confinement for life with possibility of parole and a dishonorable discharge, with reduction to the rank of private,” a military statement said.

The Army had decided before the court martial that it would not to seek the death penalty.

However, the real story is this :

Anderson, who joined the National Guard in May 2002, was reported to have attempted to make contact with al-Qaeda through Internet chat rooms.

His activities were uncovered by Shannen Rossmiller, a municipal judge from Montana, who in her spare time sought to catch terrorists on the Internet.

Judge Rossmiller told prosecutors that while she was monitoring a website devoted to radical Muslims she happened upon an e-mail posting from one “Amid Abdul Rashid”, who turned out to be Anderson.

The judge, masquerading as an extremist Muslim, began to correspond with Anderson. When she found out that he was a soldier, she contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Anderson was arrested in February at his apartment in Lynnwood, Washington, just before his unit was to deploy to Iraq.

An individual can make a difference in this war.

Via the Russian Embassy:

Fund for Victim’s of Beslan’s Children

If you want to conatct the Russian Embassy to extend your condolences or, if you are in the area, if you want to leave flowers or a note, they are located at:

2650 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20007
(202)298-5700

[I made that image for my own website. If you’d like to use it on your site to link to the charity fund, please right click and save]

[Note: If you’re coming here from Malkin’s blog, we have a single category page up with all the news from Russia since this tragedy began, including the post below. See it here. ~ Alan]

Six bodies lay covered with white sheets near the school gates. One was the almost naked corpse of a girl of about 16, another a young boy.
Men and women filed past, hands covering their mouths, tentatively lifting the sheets to see if they recognized the bodies. A 40-year-old man wearing a light brown shirt kneeled by a body, crying into his hands.

Holding up the corpse of a man just shot dead in front of hundreds of hostages at a Russian school, the rebel — his pockets stuffed with ammunition and grenades — 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. In the intolerable heat of the gym, adults implored children to drink their own urine.

—

The gymnasium was quickly transformed into an arsenal of explosives — bombs dangling from the ceiling, set on the floor, strung up on walls. She said they seemed to be homemade, primitive packages containing bolts and nails.

“They’re not human beings,” Alla said. “What they did to us, I can’t understand.

Who can understand it? What kind of people treat human beings - children, no less - this way? What kind of people shoot kids in the back?

I have kept a safe emotional distance from this story for the better part of three days, as I was too busy posting updates to let it all sink in. Now that I read the personal accounts and see the pictures in horrifying detail, my anger is swelling and the pain I feel for the children and parents is acute.

The people who perpetrated this act are monsters and do not deserve to be alive. Not just the terrorists who fired the guns or threw the grenades or beat the children, but the people who armed the murderes, the people who financed them, the people from all over the world who support and worship this kind of behavior. They are less than human.

I don’t think anyone thought this would have a good ending, given Russia’s history in situations like this. But let’s not be so quick to blame the Russian authorities that we gloss over who the real criminals are here. They are not rebels. They are not an armed gang. They are not militants. They are terrorists.

They are our enemy as well as Russia’s. And we best keep that in mind.

It’s called the Global War on Terror for a reason. It belongs to all of us, and it is up to all of us -all civilized countries - to do what we can to stop it.

Now, what are we going to do about it?

[Photos from AP]

[ed note: I did not have the intention of editorializing, but there it is. I suppose I will move this over to OpEd later. But right now, I am going to go hug my children]

via Interfax:

A total of over 200 people were killed over the course of the hostage situation in Beslan, sources in the North Ossetian Health Ministry told Interfax. “Over 200 people were shot by militants or died of injury received when explosive devices were set off by the militants,” a source said.

Also:

“All of the militants who held hundreds hostage in a school here appear to have been killed or captured,” a senior Russian military commander said Friday.

—

Chechan separatists, including leader Akhmed Zakaev, are blaming Putin for the many deaths:

“Russian power structures followed president Putin’s direct orders and stormed the school with a huge number of hostages.” According to Zakaev, “there was a real chance to solve the dreadful crisis without victims or blood,” had the Russian authorities fulfilled the terrorists’ requirements.

[via Kommersant]

UPDATE:

Stan at Logic and Sanity translated a hostage’s account of the ordeal. Excerpt:

“9:10am I walked my son (5th grader)to school. Two minutes after we walked into the court yard came the terrorists. There were about 20 of them and also 2 females. They herded us inside the school through the corridor and windows. Right away they killed 12-20 men - one at a time. Then a tank arrived and killed one of the terrorists, so they put several hostages next to a window and shot them dead. They threatened to kill 10 hostages for their dead, but I only saw about 4.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE:

Officials say that 27 terrorists in all were killed.

Covering ground from the past few hours:

Here’s a telling piece of information: “The majority of patients have bullet wounds in the back”

Kids. Shot in the back.

Here’s more:

The operation of Russian special forces for the rescue of all hostages in a Beslan school has been completed, according to a statement by General Viktor Sobolev, chief commander of 58th army.

Russian NTV quoted him saying that a total of 556 people, including 322 children, were hospitalized in the local hospital.

Seventy-nine bodies of the hundred-and-more casualties were identified, most of them were shot in the rear while trying to escape from the besieged school.

Anyone know what to make of this Rueters headline?

Bush Blames Terrorists for Russian Deaths

Did they have someone else in mind to blame?

Bush had this to say:

“In Russia, hundreds of agonized parents are worried about the fate of their children. This is yet another grim reminder of the lengths terrorists will go to threaten the civilized world,” Bush said.

“We mourn the innocent life that has been lost, we stand with the people of Russia, we send them our prayers in this horrible situation,” Bush said.

Three of the terrorists have been detained:

Three members of the terrorist group that seized a school in North Ossetia’s Beslan have been detained by security services, head of the North Ossetian president’s information and analysis department Lev Dzugayev told Interfax.

“We have information about three bandits who have been detained and are currently being held by special services. They are being worked with,” Dzugayev told Russia’s Channel One television station.

Group of Chechen Terrorists, Magomet Yevloyev (L) / Frame from the NTV Channel

Yevloyev is one of the supposed masterminds of the attack.

Kommersant: Chronicle of the Battle in Beslan

Follow recent developments (with photo galleries) on the Beslan hostage crisis on this continuously updated page. You may also want to check The Moscow Times, Interfax, and Pravda for updated reports.

(As of) 8:36 p.m (Moscow time). The All-Russia Medicinal Catastrophe Center states there are more than 600 injured.

Interfax: Vladikavkaz hospitals accommodating 456

MOSCOW. Sept 3 (Interfax) - The North Ossetian Health Ministry said the number of people taken to Vladikavkaz hospitals after being wounded in the hostage crisis in Beslan stood at 456 as of 8:00 p.m. Moscow time.

"According to the latest information, 30 [more] people were taken to the North Ossetian children's clinical hospital in Vladikavkaz," a ministry spokesman said.

Earlier reports said 426 victims were being treated in Vladikavkaz hospitals as of 7:00 p.m., and two of them later died.

The wounded people are being taken to the children's clinical hospital, the emergency medicine clinical hospital, the Ardon district hospital, and the clinic of the North Ossetian State Medical Academy in Vladikavkaz, he said.

(FEN)

There are Arabs and 1 Afro-American among the victims in Beslan in North Ossetia, said Head of Russian Federal Security Services Valeriy Andreev on Rossia TV.

In support of claims that terrorist act has been planned by international terrorists is the fact that among the killed 20 terrorists there were 10 Arabs and 1 Afro-American.

(AFX)

Ten Arabs are among 20 militants killed following the hostage siege in southern Russia, an FSB security service official said.

I’ll be away from the computer for a while.

For updates, check Stan at Logic and Sanity, Rusty Shackleford, Jeff Quinton and Laughing Wolf, who is translating from Russian sites.

Stan’s site has some intense images.

One last update:

..the terrorist shot children in the backs and beat them with riflebutts.

Tried to keep my objectivity intact while reporting this story. Expect an OpEd from me on this later. Sickening is the only word I can come up with right now.

A car stuffed with explosives has been found near the headquarters in Beslan.

Officials confirm the seizure was masterminded by Shamil Basaev, and implemented Magomet Yevloev. Abu Omar Al-Seid is reported to be the financier of the seizure.

Notes on Shamil Basaeve here. Basaeve also claimed responsibility for th e Moscow theater siege in 2002.

The only thing I could find about Yevloev is here.

Can’t find any information on al-Seid, still looking.

UPDATE:

The explosives in a car story is being refuted.

Interfax reports that the leader of the terrorists is holed up in the basement of the school.

UPDATE:

Looks like his name is Magomed “Magas” Evloev, not as spelled above. Evloeve was though to be killed in June, but doubts were cast on that. Obviously. He was supposedely the leader of these raids.

60 hostages confirmed dead and identified.

Twenty-three bodies, including 17 children, were lying outside a local hospital morgue, Reuters quoted its reporter as saying. “I can see 23 bodies lying outside the hospital morgue, six of them are in uniform and 17 are children,” he said. Medical staff told him at least 10 more bodies were inside the morgue.

UPDATE:

Interfax:

Nine of the gunmen killed in the hostage standoff in the North Ossetian town of Beslan on Friday were mercenaries from Arab countries, Russian presidential advisor Aslanbek Aslakhanov told journalists at the scene. He described the hostage-takers who seized a school on Wednesday as “an international gang.”

[We’ve been updating this since about 6am EST, scroll down to previous posts for all the reports]

A cameraman for private ITN television reports seeing about 100 bodies in the gymnasium at a Russian school where hundreds of hostages were held for three days.

This has also been reported by Interfax reporters/

(More on that as it is confirmed)

UPDATE:

A reporter on EuroNews just said that a female terrorist tried to get into a hospital (she had changed clothes) and was apprehended.

The latest update, from Russian news source Kommerant:

At least 8 terrorists have been killed, Channel One reports. According to RBC, local residents identified a disguised terrorist in the crowd and beat him to death.

A female suicide bomber was detained near the headquarters. She was dressed up in a white smock. First she tried to get in the hospital building, but was scared of police and headed toward the headquarters, where she was arrested.

The toll number keeps growing, right now over 560 people are reported to be wounded, as many as 150 dead.

Fighting in the school building is still continuing, the special forces are clearing the school. Some terrorists are hiding in the school’s add-on. Others have split and gone different directions, pursued by special forces.

…
Interfax:

The Duma Council issued a statement on Friday concerning the tragic events in North Ossetia, in which it condemned the hostage crisis in the town of Beslan.

The Duma said virtually all capitals of the world and the UN Security Council have condemned the terrorist act.

“This makes us confident that the world community is ready to combine efforts in the war against terrorism,” says the statement.

Really? Good luck with that.

UPDATE:

Two rescue workers have been killed.

The heartbreaking stories are starting to come out:

One unidentified woman freed on Thursday told Izvestia that during the night children occasionally began to cry: “Then the fighters would fire in the air to restore quiet. In the morning they told us they would not give us anything more to drink because the authorities were not ready to negotiate. “When children went to the toilet, some tried to drink from the tap. The fighters stopped them straight away.”

[AP Photo] A personal aside: I’ve been covering this story for almost three days, non-stop and I think that keeping up with the updates and rapid pace of grabbing reports from around the world has kept me at a safe emotional distance from the story. I’m only now starting to let the reality of all this sink in - the poor children, some of them too young to even understand why this was all happening, the anguish of the parents waiting to hear any news about their children - and I think those are the real goals of this kind of terrorism. Not necessarily to kill innocents, but to make the survivors suffer, to make them beg their governments to give in to demands. It is heartbreaking to see the tears of the parents who still have not been united with their kids. It is even more heartbreaking when you realize that this won’t be the last time something like this happens.

UPDATE:

Hostages still inside second building:

Terrorists continue to keep hostages as live shield in the school’s extension, announced Russian TV 1.
The number of terrorists is between 5 and 10. Some of then have been injured and cannot show any resistance.
Russian Special Forces do not have information on the number of hostages in the school’s building.

[We’ve been updating this all morning, scroll down to previous posts for all the reports]

At least five terrorists were killed inside the building.

Residents are taking part in a battle with some of the escaped terrorists.

There have been several injuries and few deaths among the Russian troops that stormed the building.

Escaping terrorists opened fire on area residents that were standing by…

UPDATE:

Interfax reports that terrorists are still inside:

About five of the guerrillas who seized a school in Russia’s North Ossetia region on Wednesday are still inside the building and “are covering the withdrawal of the other bandits,” the North Ossetian Interior Ministry said. “The main group of terrorists is trying to break through to the south of the town of Beslan, toward the [North Ossetian capital of] Vladikavkaz and principal roads,” a ministry duty officer told Interfax.

Sky reports that the death toll is rising.

There are understood to be about 100 bodies in the school gym where gunmen were holding up to 1,500 children, teachers and parents hostage.

Interfax confirms that, saying “dozens” of people died inside the building, some when the roof collapsed.

Fox News reporter Dana Lewis just now related the warning of a Russian cameraman that he should not go any closer to the school because there is still shooting coming from inside the building.

[We’ve been updating this all morning, scroll down to previous posts for all the reports]

Still very conflicting reports on casualties. Reuters reports that at least seven people are dead, over 200 injured and many children have very serious injuries.

Interfax reports that over 1,000 hospital beds have been made available, giving credence to the reports that there were at least 1,000 people inside the school.

The International Red Cross has sent surgery gear to Russian hospitals awaiting patients.

UPDATE:

Latest confirmation is ten dead.

If I can interject a little opinion here: Why didn’t the Russian officials prepare for the possibility that the terrorists might make an escape attempt by cordoning off the surrounding area? They seem very ill prepared for something of this magnitude, which is curious given Russia’s history with dealing with terrorism. You would think they would learn from previous bad endings.

UPDATE:

Too little, too late?

Ingush Interior Ministry units and Russian Interior Ministry units stationed in the Russian internal republic of Ingushetia have closed the administrative border with North Ossetia, acting Ingush Interior Minister Beslan Khamkhoyev told Interfax on Friday. All cars are being thoroughly checked, he added.

UPDATE:

Interfax reports that some of the dead include members of the special task force.

UPDATE:

Sky News: One freed hostage said a female suicide bomber blew herself up when Russian soldiers stormed the building.

Sky also has a timeline of events.

(Reuters)

At least seven people have died and more than 300 others are being treated for wounds after after a three-day school siege in Russia, local news agencies say.

Itar-Tass news agency quoted local police as saying about 200 wounded had been taken to hospitals in Beslan, the town in the southern province of North Ossetia, where the hostage drama took place.

Interfax news agency said another 110 wounded had been taken to the regional capital Vladikavkaz 30 km (20 miles) away, of whom 20 children had serious injuries.

Earlier, a Reuters witness saw three dead bodies covered in white sheets lying outside the school where children and adults have been held by Chechen militants.

“There is a constant stream of ambulances coming away from the school carrying people. Many of them look lifeless,” Reuters correspondent Richard Ayton said on Friday.

[We’ve been updating this all morning, scroll down to previous posts for all the reports]

This report says that ten are confirmed dead…

From Interfax:

Mine disposal experts have begun disabling mines in the gym of the school seized by terrorists on September 1, Colonel Vyacheslav Sedov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, told Interfax on Friday.

“The terrorists placed numerous mines in the gym, which are stuffed with bolts and screws to make them more injurious. They are being destroyed by a sapper battalion of the 58th Army,” he said.

Here’s a (Russian news) link that says 150 dead:

150 people taken hostage at the school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan have been killed, Radio Free Europe reported Friday. The information has not been confirmed by other sources.

UPDATE

Escaped Gunmen Hole Up Near N.Ossetian School

Several gunmen who took hostages in the North Ossetian school on Wednesday are hiding in a house nearby, Interfax news agency reported citing a source at the local operations headquarters. The HQ gave the number of escaped hostage-takers as 13.

Special troops have surrounded th