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 the house. Interfax reported that military helicopters were hovering over the building, which was being shelled by tanks.

It was reported earlier that several gunmen had changed clothes and tried to flee to the south of the town, to the rail junction. Some agencies have reported that two women, supposedly suicide bombers, had fled, taking several children hostages with them. The operative HQ denied the report, saying that the women only “attempted to flee”.

Quotes from Inter-Tass (English version of site overloaded now)

“Those children who remained in the school, in general, were not hurt. The ones who suffered were the children in the group which ran from the school and on whom the fighters opened fire.”

“You know, there aren’t 350 people in there, but 1,500 in all. People are lying one on top of another.” — Freed hostage Zalina Dzandarova to Kommersant daily

UPDATE:

At least one terrorists has been caught - by residents

Residents of the North Ossetian town of Beslan have detained a man suspected of being connected with the hostage-takers.
The suspect has been handed over to the local police, an Interfax correspondent reported.

Interfax also reports that several fires have broken out in the surrounding neighborhood.

UPDATE:

Latest report: 250 wounded, 180 of them children.

The relatively quiet situation around the school ended suddenly on Friday afternoon. An aid to the North Ossetian president, Lev Dzugayev, said at 1:00 p.m. that terrorists had agreed to hand over hostages’ bodies to Russian troops. The evacuation started.

Powerful explosions rocked the school, when a vehicle drove up there to take the hostages’ bodies. Several hostages ran out of the school building several minutes after the terrorists started shooting. Military men carried the hostages to safety.

The skirmish continued for about 20 minutes. Camouflaged men started taking women and children out of the building. Some children were covered with blood. Hostages were running out crying. Ambulance vehicles arrived immediately.

The terrorists exploded mines, which had been previously placed in the building of the school, when the evacuation started. The roof of the school partially collapsed because of explosions

…

The bombs blew up in the loft of the building, near the gym, where the hostages were being kept, NTV reports. Children started running out of the building soon after that….

The special headquarters said that it was not the storm of the building. A group of hostages fled, the terrorists opened fire on them and the military men had to respond in return to defend the hostages.

The gunmen attempted to break through the crowd of relatives standing near the school. The Russian troops opened fire on the retreating militants. The majority of children, who stayed inside the building, have not been wounded, Interfax reports.

A correspondent of a Polish TV channel has been wounded in the skirmish, NTV reports.

(Novinite)

Most of the children, held hostage in the Russian school, have survived, according to Russia’s Interior Minister.

According to Interfax news agency reports 158 children have been hospitalized.

The Russian military stormed the school in Beslan, North Ossetia, as dozens of hostage fled the building.

Many people were reported wounded by gunfire as a major battle broke out between the Russian army and gang holding the group.

The militants, holding hundreds of adults and children hostage in Beslan, North Ossetia, are said to be calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya in exchange for the hostages’ release.

According to the freed hostages there might be as many as 1,500 hostages in the Beslan school building, far above the official figure of 350.

(AFP)

A series of explosions and gunfire have gone off around a house in a southern Russian town, an AFP correspondent reported.

Several hostage takers are said to be trying to hide in the house.

The windows of the house have been blown out.

Civilians have fled the building by jumping out of the windows, the correspondent said.

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

Sky News reporter Rachel Amatt is just ten feet from the school and has been describing the dramatic events as they unfold.

Surrounded by the crack of gunfire and sound of explosions, possibly mines in the school hall, the families were originally kept from the scene.

But, after many children were seen running screaming from the scene, the desperate parents have forced their way to the front of the school where cars and ambulances are dashing past.

I can see a woman dressed in black with tears pouring down her face.

All the hostages have been evacuated from the gym but they’re still coming out of the school.

They’ve been coming out in a stream but they’ve all been unconscious. Almost everybody who has come out has been in a dreadful state.

More…

(FEN)

Radio Freedom has just announced that 150 hostages were killed in North Ossetia in the town of Beslan. The info hasn’t been confirmed by other forces.

[continued from here]

Apparently this was NOT a rescue attempt.

What happened is the terrorists agreed to let some ambulances come in to pick up the dead bodies that had been laying by the school since the siege first happened. When the ambulances arrives, the terrorists set off powerful explosives, which blew the roof off the building. That’s when the commandos stepped in…

More as I get it…

Over 158 kids have been taken to area hospitals. Now they are saying that as many as 1,000 people may have been inside the building.

UPDATE

Russian special forces have moved into the school where hundreds of hostages are being held.

According to the Russian wires the military is already in control of the building.

Dozens of hostage are fleeing the building as a major battle broke out between the Russian army and gang holding the group.

Many people were reported wounded by the gunfire and taken away by ambulances.

Something I’ve been curious about since some children were let out yesterday - why are all the children either naked or in their underwear?

Fox has someone live at the scene - you can still hear machine gun fire and small explosions.

UPDATE:

The reason for the number being raised to over 1,000 - there were not 354 people inside as reported yesterday, but 354 families.

Many of the terrorists escaped using children as shields.

Military just blew a hole in a wall of the school to get some hostages out…you can see them going in, coming out with children. Some of the walls, some parts of the ground have been mined by the terrorists.

Still lots of blasts and gunfire. They are letting an awful lot of civilians hang around a place where so manyh explosions are going on.

Watching EuroNews now, they are showing older children being brough out, covered in blood….some of the young girls are coming out naked…many of the hostages are collapsing as they are brought out.

Some of the escaped terrorists are trying to hide in nearby houses..

There seems to be a lot of confusion…there aren’t enough ambulances for the injured…some people are just standing around, holding injured children, waiting for help…

The escaped hostages are moving towards the railway…helicpoters are trailing them…

Many of the reports from Russian news sources say the military is in charge of the building, yet you still hear explosions and gunfire.

….

Wathcing live, just heard a huge explosion, smoke rising out of one of the buildings.

UPDATE:

Some of the terrorists who have escaped took children with them…

Wow…HUGE explosions going on now.

Reporter: Most kids were naked or in underwear because it’s been very hot outside - can only imagine what it was like with all those people stuffed in the gym, they were probably trying to keep from passing out due to heat - they hadn’t had anything to drink, either.

UPDATE

Reporting that ALL hostages are out of building now, many taken to area hospitals, but many seemingly ok.

A lot of the recent explosions were the Russian commandos intenionally setting off the mines that the terrorists had planted.

I’m amazed at the chaos…it looks like the Russian military never prepared for the potential that the terrorists would try to escape…

Security forces have attacked a house where it was thought some terrorists escaped to..

See original postings in the three or four posts below…

Words from released hostages, via Pravda:

People are lying on the floor next to one another. The terrorists separated us. Those, who did not feel very good, were placed in locker rooms. They made male hostages break the windows, because it was too stuffy in the gym,” Dzandarova said. The woman also said that there were a lot of wounded people during the first minutes of the terrorist attack. The militants shot those, who could not walk inside the building or remained lying on the ground of the school yard. Zalina Dzandzarova also said that two suicide bombers had killed themselves on Wednesday - they exploded themselves in the corridor, where male hostages were being kept.

….

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.

—

All men, who attempted to show resistance to the terrorists (about 20 men) were killed too….The released hostages, the newspaper wrote, were forbidden to talk to reporters. The terrorists said they would start killing the hostages otherwise

(AFP)

Russian special forces now hold the entire school where hundreds were being held hostage, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported, citing eyewitnesses.

“The gymnasium (where the hostages were being held) is ours,” the head of the special forces told reporters.

Russian media reported that one hundred and sixty people were wounded after special forces stormed a school here where militants were holding hundreds hostage, Russian media reported quoting local officials.

Eyewitness accounts, from the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Most of the children taken hostage in a southern Russian school are alive, Interfax news agency quoted a security official as saying.

”Those children who remained in the school, in general, did not suffer. The ones who suffered were the children in the group which ran from the school and on whom the fighters opened fire,” the official was quoted as saying.
[…]
The ABC’s Philip Williams is on the scene.

“About an hour ago, there were two huge explosions followed by intense gun fire and further explosions, which has being going on for an hour,” he said.

“We understand there has been severe damage to the school and there have been casualties.

“We know that something terribly wrong has gone on and this appears to be the end of it but we just don’t know how bad or how serious it is yet.

“It looks pretty bad from here. There are helicopters circling overhead, attack helicopters and troops pinned down near me.

“We’re taking cover too. This battle is still going on but it seems to be petering out.

“It seems to be small arms fire at this point, but it is obviously still a volatile situation.”
[…]
“You know, there aren’t 350 people (the previous official number) in there, but 1,500 in all. People are lying one on top of another,” Zalina Dzandarova, a 27-year-old woman, told the daily Kommersant.

One unidentified woman freed on Thursday said 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.”

Ms Dzasokhov said the captors had made their demands in talks on Thursday with Ruslan Aushev, a moderate former leader of nearby Ingushetia province, who has taken on a mediating role.

“The demands relayed to Aushev yesterday…were that Chechnya must be an independent state,” he said.

Photo from Reuters

Lots of news breaking….

Soldiers shepherded children, many of them wounded and only in their underwear, away from a school where militants had taken hundreds of people hostage in southern Russia, as explosions and gunfire were heard from the area.

There are also reports of gunfire and a roof collapse..links coming.

Just putting up the news quickly with links to follow..

Many of the children being brought out are covered in blood….At least two explosions were heard…special military forces have moved in…

Update:

Interfax:

Several terrorists who held hostages in the seized North Ossetian school, broke out of the building in an attempt to escape. They kept firing randomly on their way, an Interfax corespondent reported.

Interfax also says that there were three explosions heard. Parents who had been standing by the building awaiting news of their children have been evacuated from the area.

Reports that MOST of the children who remain in the building are alive.

UPDATE:

It looks like the roof has collapsed due to helicopters in the area. Many of the fleeing terrorists have been shot and there are at least 15 known casualties so far among the hostages.

From CNN:

Special forces have stormed a school in southern Russia after dozens of hostages escaped as the building’s roof collapsed, Russian news agencies reported.

Interfax said Russian commandos were in control of most of the school Friday. Russian television NTV said five of the hostage-takers were killed….

..”Those children who remained in the school, in general, did not suffer. The ones who suffered were the children in the group which ran from the school and on whom the fighters opened fire,” Interfax quoted the official as saying, Reuters reported.

This reports says five hostages were killed. Very contradiciting and conflicting reports right now.

Russian NTV reports that there were two explosions heard at the school. They are showing children pouring out into the street. Most are undressed, probably because it is excessively hot inside. Some former hostages are wounded, most seem to be teenagers, and one adult woman. Shots are being heard. Russian airforce helicopters are seen above the scene. There is a report that some of the terrorists are trying to hide in a nearby residential area.

Update: More from Reuters.

I have NTV on, and shots are being heard regularly at the scene. There is an un confirmed report that two female terrorists have disguised themselves as nurses, in order to blend in within the croud amid the chaos surrounding the school.

Children are being carried out all the time, either wounded, exhausted, or dead. Most children are reported to be alive.

Update: BBC, SKY and CNN Europe have this on as well.

• Analysts Say School Storming Possible Despite Putin’s Statement

“If the situation develops in a way that threatens the lives of hostages… then storming is the only possibility,” said Boris Makarenko, a security analyst at the Center for Political Technologies in Moscow. Read more…

• Gennady Gudkov, State Duma deputy and an FSB reserve general, talks about the prospects of negotiations with rebels:

Why do you think that talks with the republican leaders will be difficult?
This is a common strategy of terrorists. Tomorrow they will demand talks with Putin, Kofi Annan, or, maybe they will want Jesus Christ for a mediator? Read more…

• Why Is Russia Powerless before Terrorists [An interesting opinion piece on terrorism in Russia]

Let’s start by defining our enemy and, say, expel all Chechens. Then we’ll move on to the Dagestanis, then all the rest of the Caucasians, then Tatars and Bashkiris, and anyone else we can think of. And what will be left of Russia? The country will dissolve, the regions will secede. That is exactly the goal of the terrorist acts. Read more…

I found this on Fark, of all places and the author, Lars, agreed to let me post it here.

You can visit Lars’s fine weblog for more of his interesting takes on the world at large.

Chechnya!
What’s there to see?
Let’s take a look at history!

First, Nicky I, he made a play
to make it his, one awful day.
With little weeble-wobbled men
he fought the brave caucasians.
Bap! they frought!
Bip! they froed!
And Nicky’s men were made to goed!

Next Russians came (the olden ones)
With heavy coats and shiny guns.
They bonked Caucasians on the head
until the streets were filled with dead.
Bop! they hit,
and Bam! was heard.
And Chechnya was conquer-ered.

For fifty years they stayed that way,
‘til Bolsheviks took stage to play.
(The Chechnyans were known back then
as scrappy little Dagestan.)

As Lenin read a book on Marx,
the Dagestans, they met in parks,
and darkened halls, and public squares,
and vowed to get right out of theres.

But Lenin smelled a dirty plot,
and all the traitor-ors were caught.
Zip! he rippedthe land in two!
And Zap! he stuck them back with glue!
The Dagestans, they took their lick
and were made into a republic.

So under Soviets they’d fallen,
but then along came Mr. Stalin!
Old Uncle Joe! Boy, what a man!
He took the Chechens by the hand!
And beat them hard, in ways so many,
they looked for help from German-any.

Help us! they cried!
Save us! they pled!
For many had been rendered dead.
And Uncle Joe, he saw what’s doing,
he smelled the independence brewing.

So in this mass his-teria,
he sent them to Siberia.
And Kazhakstan.
And to the grave.
Their freedom lost, which they did crave.
So in this state of prison-ation
languished weak, this one proud nation.

Their spirits broke, the fate of whims,
and soon along came Musl-ims.
From whence they came? We do not know!
They’d been shipped there
by Uncle Joe.

Now skip ahead, dear boids and girlds,
through coldish wars fought between worlds.
There came a time,
it came to be,
that Chechnya was finally free.

How’s that?! you ask.
How come?! you beg.
I do not like green hams and egg!

What happened was (it’s plain to see!):
The Soviets, they ceased to be.

Free! they were singin’!
At last! they were gushin’
But wait a sec—here come the Russians.

And so, again, their hope to be
allowed to run to, fro, and free
was gently pushed under the mat
by Bo Yeltsin,
the drunkocrat.

Boris tried to hold together
the states that were once of a feather.
But though he sat
and thinked,
and thunk,
Boris was a little drunk.

And he decided, one fateful day,
“I’ll just make bad Chechnya stay!”
5,000 Russians (in ‘94)
came and knocked upon the door.

“Be off!” Chechnya shouted!
“Go ‘way!” Chechnya blared!
But in a war they were ensnared.

Now here it gets a little sticky,
confusing
and a little tricky.

Remember the old musl-ims?
Who said their prayers and sang their hymms?
In Chechnya they were still there,
madly pulling at their hair.
“We’ve got a deal, we think it’s handsome…”
And soon Russkies were taken ransom.
The war it waged, both day and night,
and radicals fought back with fright.

Boom! went the theater!
Bang! went the raid!
A tug of war…
For a decade.

And in the hazy, hanging smoke,
your wizened beard you sit and stroke.
Pondering aloud, “What has it brought
but hate
and death
and fear
and fraught?”

“Who will lose?” you wonder.
You ask, “Who will win?”
But ask any old Chechny-an….

He’ll tell you, sadly,
thinking back,
to Nick and Joe,
and that whole pack:

“It doesn’t matter, in the end,
who sits inside the Krem-a-lin.
Whether Lenin…
or Gorby…
or Boris..
or Putin…

Expect the same sometime again.”

by Lars Thorwald

[Future updates will go here for the time being]

“I saw them releasing four infants, less than one year old, and two women. They were driven in a car of Ruslan Aushev,” Reuters Television producer, Olga Petrova, said referring to the head of North Ossetia’s neighbor Ingushetia. North Ossetian spokesman Lev Dzugayev told reporters three women were released.

UPDATE:

In Grozny, Chechnya:

Grozny is hosting protest rallies against the hostage taking in a secondary school in Beslan in North Ossetia (a republic in the North Caucasus).

A RIA Novosti correspondent reports that the rally took place on the territory of the university. Some 500 students took part in it. They carried posters that read “Hands off children” and “People of Ossetia, we are with you.” The speakers emotionally expressed their sympathy with children taken hostage, their parents and relations.

A resolution against all kinds of terrorism was adopted at the rally.

Details about the hostages are coming out slowly. It is known now that three of the hostages inside the building are Turkish:

Three Turks, two children and their mother, are among hundreds of hostages seized at a Russian school close to Chechnya, the children’s father told the CNN Turk news channel on Thursday.

Seyfi Dogan said in an interview by telephone from the scene that his family was caught up in the incident when his Russian-born wife and their one-year-old baby accompanied their nine-year-old daughter to the school.

Turkey was quick to condemn the act of terrorism:

“We forcefully condemn this form of terrorist action, which can in no way be justified and which harms the life of innocent people and even children,” said a written statement issued by the foreign ministry.

“This is an unacceptable act,” it said.

This comes right after the news that three Turkish hostages were murdered in Iraq.

UPDATE:

According to several sources, 26 women and children have been freed.

From Yahoo:

Armed hostage-takers freed 26 women and children from a Russian school here where hundreds of others were held captive, news agencies said quoting local authorities.

The crisis unit set up on the scene said that the liberation, the first major release of hostages, was made possible through the mediation efforts of former Ingush president Ruslan Aushev.

UPDATE:

They are now saying 31 have been released.

UPDATE:

Radio Free Europe has another analysis on who might be behind this.
Also, from Interfax:

Most of the 26 hostages freed in the North Ossetian town of Beslan are at a local hospital now.
“We have admitted ten children and their mothers. All of them will be examined and the appropriate medical attention will be given to them,” the hospital’s chief doctor told Interfax.

UPDATE:

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.”

“If the matter has a tragic outcome, it will mean war-a warfare in this explosive area. We must prevent war between fraternal peoples at all cost. I am appealing to the wisdom of the Ossetian, Ingush and Chechen peoples to ward off the looming war danger. A war will take thousands of lives, and we must see it.,”

Reuters

From the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :

Russian authorities have ruled out for now the use of force to end the stand-off at a southern Russia school where armed men and women have seized about 350 children and adults.

In a nationally televised address from the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the main task of the authorities was to save the lives of the hostages who remain trapped in a school gymnasium, a day after suspected Chechen rebels stormed the school in the town of Beslan.

Earlier, the head of the FSB security service in North Ossetia, Valery Andreyev, told parents there was no question of opting for force.

He said the authorities would do all they could to free the children and there would be a lengthy negotiation process.

He said a negotiator would enter the school soon to directly contact the hostage takers.
[…]
Moscow correspondent Emma Griffiths, who is at the scene, says there are 132 children inside the school gymnasium held hostage with their parents and teachers.

She says Russian officials have resumed communications with the rebels and the gunmen have finally agreed to allow in food and water.

“The hostage takers did cut off talks at 3:00am local time - apparently they just switched off their mobiles.

“So those talks are under way. Now, apparently we do know that they have managed to convince the hostage takers to allow food and water to be brought into the school to be delivered and the regional government is preparing a thousand sort of lunch box packets of food for the people who are in the gymnasium.”

“Some residents have told the ABC babies are also among the captives,” she said.
[…]
The Interior Minister of North Ossetia, Kabek Dzentiev, said distraught parents waiting outside the gates made the radical suggestion that adults be sent inside the gym in the children’s place.

“We did offer an exchange of the same number of adults for the children, but they refused,” he said.

“Even more so we offered to give them a free passage out if they let the children and our people go, but again they refused, so we’ll keep working.”

Just on Fox TV: expolsions and smoke from the “hijacked” school in Russia. More as it develops …

UPDATE:

Two explosions have been heard at a school in Southern Russia where hundreds of hostages, including school children, are being held.
Correspondents report large plumes of black smoke rising over the building, but were unable to provide any explanation for the two blasts.

Update from FOX:

A soldier told FOX News that the terrorists had bombed a car and that was the apparent source of the explosion.

Latest Updates:

• Negotiations have broken down:

A reporter on the scene of the school siege in southern Russia has told CNN that negotiations have broken down, and militants holding hundreds of children hostage have turned off their mobile phones.

• Again, the exact number of hostages is unclear, but this is the closest I’ve seen to an actual head count:

Terrorists are holding 354 people hostage in the school of Beslan. It became possible to determine the exact number of hostages after numerous consultations with their relatives, the head of the information administration of the North Ossetian president, Lev Dzugayev said. Previous reports said 123 children among the hostages. Dzugayev added the lists of hostages would be revealed today.

That same article says that some of the terrorists have been identified and their names will be announced today. It also had this disturbing thought: The terrorists removed their masks yesterday in the evening. Specialists say it is a very disturbing gesture, which means terrorists are prepared to fight to the last drop of blood.

I find it both curious and alarming that 24 hours after this ordeal began, there is still very little information about who the hostage takers are and/or who they represent. Although Simon Basayev has denied any involvement, his website, according to Stan at Logic & Sanity (who speaks Russian):

Basayev’s official website is doing some serious PR. www.kavkaz.org.uk/russ/ they have just posted two articles (in russian) about Russia’s alleged murder of 42,000 chechen children
(a gruesome photo of dead kids is accompanying the text). The second article is titled “You Reap What You Sow”.

Their english language site has finally posted an article regarding the siege.

They also claim to have been DOS attacked by FSB hackers, today. Whatever.

Apparently, they are using their website to communicate with terorrists world wide. I’ve just clicked on the “chat” item in the side menu and their java chat applet told me that my IP is not authorized.

The English language version of the site keeps timing out.

Also curious is the amount of news agencies referring to the terrorists as an “armed gang” or other such euphemisms.

We’ll keep updating this story all day as we hope for a peaceful resolution and not a repeat of this.

UPDATE:

Bits and pieces….it seems some of the kids who escaped early on yesterday morning did so by hiding in the boiler room when the terrorists firs stormed the building….Russian authorities have, for now, ruled out use of force to free the hostages…Quote from a relative of a hostage: “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.….Weird reporting on the deaths so far; while the “official” total seems to stand at nine, some outlets are reporting as many as 13 or 16 dead..Here’s one of those reports, from Candada.com:

Casualty reports in the raid varied widely, but an official in the joint-command operation for the crisis said on condition of anonymity early Thursday that 16 people were killed — 12 inside the school, two who died in hospital and two others whose bodies still lay outside the school and could not be removed because of gunfire — and 13 others wounded.

Update: This just emailed to me:

At about 14:00 local time shots were heard in the school in Beslan where terrorists keep 356 hostages, Gazetta Ru announced. About ten shots have been heard at the side of the building’s avant-corps. It is not yet clear who shot and at whom.

[It’s about 14:15 there right now]

Also, the terrorists have agreed to let the pediatrician,Dr. Leonid Roshal, into the building.

Update:

The terrorists have not only refused offers of food for the hostages, but they have turned down an offer to have adults sent in as replacement hostages for children.

Via Interfax:

U.S. President George W. Bush telephoned his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, expressing his condolences over deaths caused by recent terrorist attacks in Russia and offering his sympathy over Wednesday’s hostage crisis in North Ossetia.
Bush also offered any form of support Russia might need to release the hostages, the Kremlin press service told Interfax.
The U.S. president said his country and Russia were fighting international terrorism shoulder to shoulder.

Also, Kofi Annan speaks out:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the terrorists to release the children, their parents and teachers who were taken hostage in a school in North Ossetia on Wednesday.

In his statement that has just been circulated in the U.N. Annan said he was “shocked” by the incident and condemned it in the strongest possible terms.

And a little background on North Ossetia, via Wikipedia:

Historically, right River Terek bank of Prigorodny District had been part of Ingushetia, but was granted to North Ossetia in 1944, following Stalin’s deportation of the Ingush to Central Asia. Although they were eventually allowed to return to their homes, the territory itself was never returned to Ingushetia, causing considerable tension in the region. A local law, passed in 1982, actually prohibited ethnic Ingush from obtaining residency permits in the republic. The massive influx of South Ossetian refugees in the early 1990s and the ensuing conflict between the two rival groups eventually caused many Ingush to flee to Ingushetia. While efforts are underway to settle the refugee problem, the conflict between the two republics has yet to be resolved.

UPDATE:

An official statement from Umar Khanbiyev, described as General Representative of the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria to foreign countries, but also described to me as a health minister.

We have become eyewitnesses to a number of inhuman atrocities by people — of explosions in Moscow and the hostage-taking of schoolchildren in the town of Beslan, widely reported by Russian and world media.

There is no justification for this inhuman action, as there is no justification either for the murder of 42 thousand Chechen school-age children by the Russian military, carried out on the order of the Kremlin regime and Putin personally.

The genocidal war against the people of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the criminal-terrorist policy of the Kremlin regime are the detonator for destabilization in the entire Caucasus and in Russia itself. The countless crimes against humanity, committed by Russia on Caucasian soil, are making possible desperate, inhuman reciprocal steps, like today’s action by people who have lost their senses because of grief and losses, because of cynicism and injustice.

Confirming the unacceptability of any terrorist methods against peaceful civilians for the achievement of political goals, I am authorized to state on behalf of the President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov, as well as the Government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, that the further escalation of the policy of terror against the peoples of the Caucasus, including the people of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, is fraught with the loss of control of the situation, with unpredictable consequences, and that the moral and juridical responsibility for this is lying personally with the President of the RF, Putin, and his clique.

Via Lenat.ru and loosely translated with Babelfish, it seems that Shamil Basayev is denying any involvement with the hostage taking.

Anyone read Russian?

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]

I’ve started a new post (adding to these stories) so that the new developments don’t get lost in too many updates.

Here’s an intersesting tidbit that was posted on the Russia News Daily website this morning:

Security was tightened across the capital on Wednesday as throngs of schoolchildren marched in classes on the first day of the new school year, celebrated nationwide as the Day of Knowledge. Police officers on duty in all Moscow schools are to receive photos of two women believed to be planning new suicide attacks in the city.

UPDATE:

Ruslan Balgatov, the mufti of North Ossetia where the hostage taking unfolded this morning, entered the school earlier in an “attempt to open a dialogue with the terrorists,” the news agency quoted local authorities as saying.

But they said the hostage takers refused to open talks with Balgatov and demanded again to meet with the presidents of North Ossetia and neighboring Ingushetia.

Meanwhile, Russia has deployed troops to guard nuclear sites.

Here’s a list of terror attacks in Russia in 2004 that have been linked to Chechen rebels.

UPDATE:

Now Russian officials are denying that there were 15 hostages released.

UPDATE

The leader of the Muslim community in Russia’s North Ossetia province entered the school where armed attackers took up to 400 children and adults hostage on Wednesday, Itar-Tass news agency said.

“He is trying to establish a contact with the terrorists,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted officials in Beslan as saying of Mufti Ruslan Valgatov’s mission. North Ossetia is predominantly Christian but has a small Muslim communtity

Also: Some news agencies are reporting that eight people have died, but there are no reports on whether they were students, adults or terrorists or how they died.

UPDATE:

Reports that nine people have died; one terrorist and nine civilians. No children are reported to be among the victims and I think we finally have confirmation on how many children - 132- are inside the building

UPDATE

One source is reporting that a loud blast has been heard coming from inside the school.

Meanwhile, pediatrician Leonid Roshal has arrived (he’s been called a “preferred negotiator”) and some negotiations have begun.

[Note: I’ve moved this over from Global Recon. ~ Alan]

Armed attackers have seized 400 people, including 200 children, as hostages at a school in southern Russia after a gun battle with police.

Men and women wearing belts made of explosives have threatened to blow it up if troops tried to storm the building.

Witnesses said that the school gym in the town of Beslan in the province of North Ossetia near Chechnya has been mined.

Nearly 50 children, who had apparently hidden when the attackers burst in, are reported to have managed to escape.

Reports are sketchy at the moment, but several news outlets have confirmed that a second school has been overtaken and at least one news source says a shootout occurred at one school.

UPDATE:

The demands of the hostage takers:

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, North Ossetian Emergency Situations Minister Boris Dzagoyev said.

Roshal acted as a mediator between hostage takers and Russian authorities in a Moscow theater hostage-taking crisis in October 2002.

Reports that at least three people have been killed:

At least three people were killed during the seizure by terrorists of a school in Russia’s North Ossetia republic on Wednesday, a duty officer at the regional Interior Ministry said.

“One body lies near the entrance and two others are on a road near the fence,” he was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying,adding that “all the dead are civilians.”

“The militants do not let recover the bodies, opening fire as people appear in front of the school,” he noted. Enditem

UPDATE 2:

The terrorists, who took hostages in a school in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia, submitted a video cassette, RIA Novosti reported. It is not known yet what it contains. A few schoolchildren have managed to escape from the kidnappers. One of them is a girl. A representative of the Muslim Organization in North Ossetia has arrived at the spot. According to other sources, a few hostages have been released. One of them has handed a note by the terrorists, which says “Wait”. In case of an assault, the captors threaten to detonate the school building.

That story also reports seven injured people.

There are about 400 hostages total, including students and teachers, plus many parents, who were present because it was the first day of school. Some sources say that the dead are all parents.

The terrorists include at least 17 men and several women wearing suicide belts.

I can’t confirm that there were two schools, so far it looks like just one.

Update: At least 50 children have escaped.

From Interfax:

Shooting has resumed near the school seized by terrorists in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia on Wednesday morning. There have been three explosions in the area. Rebels are also believed to have fired shots at civilians using grenade launchers, Interfax has learned.

Update: The terrorists have threatened to blow up the school if troops try to storm the building.

Also: The terrorists have mined the school’s vicinity, Beslan police said. One of these mines has killed a cow. According to police officials, the terrorists have set a sniper on the roof.

UPDATE:

The terrorists threw a note from the window of the school. They have demanded that Russia withrdaw from Chechnya.

Also, Interfax reports that one terrorist and two civilians have been killed.

UPDATE:

Finally found out how old these kids are - most of them are in first or second grade.

Also:

The hostage-takers inside the school in Beslan have warned they will be killing fifty children for each dead militant, and twenty, for each injured one, North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev has said.

[AP Photo]The terrorists are not allowing food or aid to be brought in for the hostages.

There is still no specific group claiming responsibility for the hostage taking, though it is obvious the terrorists are Chechen sympathizers.

UPDATE:

The number of hostages inside the school keeps changing. Some sources say there are about 120, while other sources keep saying 400.

It’s been confirmed that 15 of the hostages were freed.

From Russia Journal Daily:

A group of terrorists which overran a high school and took over 400 hostage earlier today, has demanded meetings with North Ossetian and Ingush presidents, Alexander Dzasokhov and Murat Zyazikov, as well as with Leonid Roshal, a renowned pediatrician, according to local news reports.

Roshal, who helped negotiate during the theater siege in Moscow in October 2002, has agreed to participate in the negotiation. He is reportedly on his way to the scene.

Attackers reportedly wrapped with suicide bomb belts seize school in southern Russia
Arizona Republic

More than a dozen attackers carrying guns and wrapped in suicide-bomb belts men seized a school in the Russian region of North Ossetia Wednesday morning and were holding hundreds of hostages, including some 200 children, news reports said.

[Ed note: See updates on this story here]