200 Children and Teachers taken hostage in school

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I'm glad they're showing this coverage -- puts a face on what we're up against...

[2GOLD 0]

I'm glad they're showing this coverage -- puts a face on what we're up against...

 

The footage of the kids and the burning building was enough for me. I don't need to see the burnt bodies to put a face on it. And I damn sure don't need the camera to hold on said burnt bodies for 20 seconds.

 

If we are going to respect our own dead in a time of tragedy, we need to respect the dead of other countries as well.

[Guest Urine Sane]

The total of CHILDREN killed will be released sometime soon.

 

BESLAN, Russia — The bodies of more than 100 people were found Friday in the gymnasium of a school in southern Russia at the end of a three-day hostage siege, according to the Interfax news agency.

 

Hundreds more were wounded during the siege and subsequent raid by Russian soldiers.

 

Commandos stormed the Beslan school and battled terrorists holding hundreds of hostages as crying children — some naked and covered in blood — fled through explosions and gunfire.

 

Earlier, The Associated Press reported that at least seven people were killed and 400 wounded; Interfax put the number of dead in the dozens.

 

But a British ITN News reporter said he saw about 100 bodies in the school gymnasium where the hostages were being held. The roof over the gym caved in during the violence.

 

As many as 1,500 hostages, most of them women and children, had been held in the standoff since terrorists seized the building Wednesday.

 

The captives were taken by heavily armed terrorists who were making a series of demands involving the war-torn region of Chechnya, including a request that Russian troops leave the area.

 

Russian authorities appeared to have taken control of the school, and all the hostages were evacuated from the gymnasium. But gunfire rang out through the town for hours afterward, before ending in the afternoon.

 

About a dozen terrorists escaped, with the Interfax news agency reporting that they split into three groups to blend in with the hostages and took refuge in a home nearby. Tank fire was heard from the area of the house, Interfax said.

 

Alexander Dzasokhov — the president of the North Ossetia region, where the school is located — said the militants had demanded independence for the nearby war-torn region of Chechnya.

 

Huge columns of smoke billowed from the school, where windows were shattered, part of the roof was gone and another part was charred. The scene around the school was chaotic, with people running through the streets, the wounded carried off on stretchers. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood. Four armed men in civilian clothes ran by, shouting, "A militant ran this way."

 

Soldiers and men in civilian clothes carried children — some naked, some clad only in underpants, some covered in blood — to a temporary hospital set up behind an armored personnel carrier. One child had a bandage on her head, others had bandaged limbs. Some women, newly freed from the school, fainted.

 

The children drank eagerly from bottles of water given to them once they reached safety. Many of the children were only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gymnasium where they had been held since the terrorists took the building on Wednesday. The terrorists had refused to allow food or water be brought into the school throughout the standoff.

 

"I am helping you," a man dressed in camouflage told a crying girl. Women gathered around, trying to soothe her, saying "It's all right. It's all right."

 

Associated Press Television News footage showed the bodies of four children and a woman, and the ITAR-Tass news agency reported that at least seven people were killed, including five militants.

 

Regional emergency officials said 250 hostages were wounded, including 180 children. The head of a children's hospital in the regional capital of Vladikavkaz said five of the 68 wounded children brought there were in grave condition. Interfax reported more than 400 wounded, including hostages and local residents.

 

A nurse spread clean sheets on stretchers, and told the AP that Russian officials expected "very many" wounded. In another part of town, several dead were covered with white sheets, and a woman peered under one to see who the slain person was.

 

The chaos erupted on the third day of the hostage standoff after terrorists agreed to let Russia retrieve the bodies of people killed early in the raid. Explosions went off as the emergency personnel went to get the bodies at around 1 p.m., and hostages took the noise as a signal to flee, officials said.

 

Terrorists opened fire on fleeing hostages and security forces returned fire. Once the hostage-takers sought to flee, commandos moved in.

 

Terrorists reportedly fired at children who ran from the building, and unconfirmed reports said some of the hostage-takers, possibly including women wearing bomb belts, had fled during the chaos and may have taken hostages with them.

 

Interfax said the school's roof had collapsed — possibly from the explosives some militants had strapped to their bodies. The militants had reportedly threatened to blow up the building if authorities tried to storm.

 

The identities of the terrorists were murky. Lev Dzugayev, a North Ossetian official, said the attackers might be from Chechnya or Ingushetia. Law enforcement sources in North Ossetia and Ingushetia, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attackers were believed to include Chechens, Ingush, Russians and a North Ossetian suspected of participating in the Ingushetia violence.

 

"They are very cruel people, we are facing a ruthless enemy," said Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician involved in the negotiations. "I talked with them many times on my cell phone, but every time I ask to give food, water and medicine to the hostages they refuse my request."

 

On Thursday, the militants had freed about 26 hostages, all women and children, and Russian officials had been in negotiations with the militants since they had seized the building Wednesday.

 

There were conflicting reports of the number of hostages, with official saying about 350 and people among a small group freed on Wednesday saying there were about 1,500.

 

President Vladimir Putin had said that everything possible would be done to end the "horrible" crisis and save the lives of the children.

 

The school seizure came a day after a suspected Chechen homicide bomber blew herself up outside a Moscow subway station, killing nine people, and just over a week after 90 people died in two plane crashes that are suspected to have been blown up by bombers also linked to Chechnya.

 

Two major hostage-taking raids by Chechen rebels outside the region in the past decade prompted forceful Russian rescue operations that led to many deaths. The most recent, the seizure of a Moscow theater in 2002, ended after a knockout gas was pumped into the building, debilitating the captors but causing almost all of the 129 hostage deaths.

 

Insurgents fought an earlier war for Chechen independence, a conflict that ended in stalemate. In the years since, the rebels and their sympathizers have increasingly taken to assaults and attacks outside the tiny republic.

 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This sounds just like Die Hard minus John McClain

[Guest SP-1]

This is terrible. I'm sure we'll hear about it in class on Wednesday morning since Dr. Crutchfield was following it enough to have us pray specifically about the situation before class on Friday.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

This sounds just like Die Hard minus John McClain

That's McClane, unless you mean the guy from Arlizonla.

[2GOLD 0]

This sounds just like Die Hard minus John McClain

That's McClane, unless you mean the guy from Arlizonla.

 

I think he means both.

 

And isn't the official number 350? No matter what the number, this is beyond sick.

 

I'm just waiting for someone to blame the US for this. So braindead moron with too much time on his hand to come out and say, "blah blah blah Iraq blah blah this wouldn't have happened".

 

I know it's coming and the person that says it needs to be slapped.

[spiny norman 0]

If somebody says that they obviously don't understand the situation at hand and ought to be ignored/educated.

[iliketurtles 0]

.

[Vanhalen 0]

Im AMAZED your American media is in such a poor state(not a knock at all) but when this kicked off all the UK news channels carried this live without adverts for maybe 5-6 hours during the day, even the main channels stopped their programming to show the news, and yet, just for the hell of it, I had a flick onto Fox News(carried live in the UK) and you'd think nothing was going on, it was all going to shit in Russia and Fox spent 5 minutes on some lady in Cincinnati(spel?) who had reached 110! How in the fuck do you guys keep up with whatever goes on in the world? Amazing.

 

For the act itself, I had the misfortune to watch it live(I wish I hadnt but some things you have to watch) and it was absolutly horrible, it really was, there was no good way out of this situation, just horrible.

[Vanhalen 0]

Lest we forget

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3630518.stm

 

Dead buried while Russia mourns

 

Dozens of funerals have already taken place

Russia has begun two days of mourning for more than 330 people killed in the school siege, as the town of Beslan itself holds scores more funerals.

More than 170 victims are to be buried on Monday while relatives of about 200 people still officially missing try to find out if they are dead or alive.

 

About half of those killed in the clash between troops and militants demanding Chechen independence were children.

 

Flags are at half-mast across Russia and entertainment shows are off air.

 

'Sound of wailing'

 

The BBC's Steve Rosenberg, in Beslan, says Monday will be a day of very personal pain in the small town, which he says feels like it has had its heart ripped out.

 

More than 100 families will be burying loved ones on Monday

Across Beslan the sound of wailing echoed from the windows of apartment blocks.

In what is left of School Number One, former hostages and those still searching for their loved ones wandered around the burnt-out remains of the school gymnasium

 

Two mothers, whose children died there, laid flowers, then stood in silence, staring at the rubble, our correspondent says.

 

One man called Boris was looking for his 14-year-old nephew Aslan. All he could find was a shoe.

 

A teacher pointed to where the hostage-takers had fired on her students as they had clambered out of a window.

 

Authorities say at least 335 people died in the siege in the North Ossetia region, but unofficial figures suggest the real number could be closer to 400.

 

Weapons 'hidden'

 

It is thought that more than 1,100 people had been held in the school, although there is no official figure.

 

The Russian Red Cross has appealed for international assistance to provide medical equipment to the overstretched local hospitals trying to treat the injured, who now number nearly 400.

 

 

I swear by Allah I did not shoot, I swear I did not shoot

 

Alleged hostage-taker 

Seventeen of the most seriously injured, including 11 children, have been transferred to hospitals in Moscow.

 

Funerals for victims began on Sunday with the burial of 24 people.

 

Children at the school had been celebrating the start of the new school year with parents and staff on Wednesday morning when the heavily armed gang took them hostage.

 

The crisis ended in massive bloodshed on Friday after bombs rigged by the hostage-takers went off inside the building, and Russian troops moved in.

 

Russian authorities are investigating claims that adults were told to hand hostage-takers weapons concealed under the sports hall's floorboards.

 

Correspondents say there are indications the weapons could have been hidden weeks before the attack.

 

'Escaped'

 

Meanwhile, state television broadcast footage it says was of one of the hostage-takers in captivity.

 

The man was shown in handcuffs, insisting that he had not shot any of the children in the school.

 

Claims about the number and fate of the hostage-takers, who were demanding Chechen independence, have been vague and contradictory.

 

At one point the authorities said that all of the hostage-takers, about 30 in all, had been killed.

 

The man who appeared on state television was said to have had shaved off his beard in order to try to escape with fleeing hostages when the siege collapsed.

 

Asked by a state TV reporter whether he felt sorry for the child hostages, the man replied: "I swear by Allah, I did feel sorry for them. I have got children too."

[Lil' Bitch 0]

A 12 year old was shot in the back 46 times. Fuck Chechnya!

[Vanhalen 0]

This story gets more and more interesting as the days go by

 

Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper has called for an official investigation into the alleged poisoning of its journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a high profile critic of the Kremlin's policy on Chechnya, on a flight to Beslan last week.

 

And in an extraordinary development, the editor of her paper has revealed that Politkovskaya was going to the school not only as a journalist but to see if she could use her network of contacts with the Chechens to secure the release of nearly 1,200 hostages.

 

She acted as a negotiator in the Moscow theatre siege two years' ago and was ready to offer help in Beslan, her bosses said today.

 

The deputy editor of Novaya Gazeta, Sergei Sokolov, said the newspaper would press for criminal charges to be brought against those responsible for the apparent poisoning of Politkovskaya, who had to be taken to hospital after collapsing on her way to the scene of the tragedy last week.

 

"We will ask for an official investigation and a criminal case," Sokolov said today through a translator. "We need to find out exactly what happened."

 

Politkovskaya, one of the most outspoken critics of President Vladimir Putin's policy on Chechnya, fell ill and collapsed shortly after landing at Rostov on Don airport from where she was due to travel to Beslan. Doctors said later she had been poisoned after drinking a cup of tea offered to her by an air hostess on the plane from Moscow.

 

Colleagues on Novaya Gazeta said she had returned to work today but had not fully recovered from the illness.

 

Asked whether he believed Politkovskaya had been poisoned on the orders of the Kremlin, Sokolov replied: "We think it is quite possible. We cannot say absolutely that it was an attempt to poison her but medical doctors in Rostov said her health had been undermined by something from outside.

 

"Politkovskaya is seen as being for the Chechens - she took part in the negotiations with the Moscow theatre hostage takers and she is very popular in these regions," he added.

 

"She was going there not only as a journalist but as someone ready to conduct talks with the terrorists."

 

Colleagues said Politkovskaya, who mediated with Chechen rebels during the Moscow theatre siege in October 2002, had spoken to representatives of the moderate Chechen separatist leader, Aslan Maskhadov, before leaving for Beslan.

 

She boarded a flight to Rostov on Don after being checked in, then was refused entry to three other flights destined for cities nearer to the besieged school.

 

Colleagues said she took her own food on the flight and asked only for a cup of tea. She lost consciousness 10 minutes after drinking it.

 

Politkovskaya was among a number of journalists prevented from travelling to Beslan.

 

Andrei Babitsky, a correspondent for the US government-funded Radio Free Europe, was detained by Russian authorities at Moscow airport and prevented from travelling to the town. He was due to be released today after almost a week in detention.

 

Novaya Gazeta has been highly critical of the Russian government's handling of the Beslan crisis.

 

This week it claimed that the government's insistence that only 354 hostages were being held had infuriated the terrorists and exacerbated the situation inside the school.

 

One report in Moscow claimed the hostage-takers had a television and were enraged by the way the Kremlin was playing down the enormity of their act.

 

But Solokov said today that the newspaper - one of the Kremlin's biggest critics on the hugely sensitive Chechen issue - had not come under any government pressure to change its line over the past few days.

 

"The newspapers are not taken very seriously. It is the television stations that are suppressed," he said.

 

But Solokov said many newspapers - notably Izvestiya, whose editor Raf Shakirov was this week fired over his coverage of the crisis - practised self-censorship over Chechnya.

 

"There are many newspapers owned by the oligarchs and when these newspapers print criticism it is viewed by the Kremlin as the position of those oligarchs," he said.

 

"So there are some papers that cannot afford to be too critical of the Kremlin, particularly on the issue of Chechnya."

 

Nonetheless, Izvestiya this week continued to criticise the government's handling of the crisis and yesterday printed a point-by-point rebuttal of the official version of events.

 

In a front-page article headlined, "What may have happened to those who are missing", the newspaper tried to address the issue of how 200 people appear to have vanished following the siege; claimed the crack troops supposed to be handling the siege were rehearsing storming tactics in another school when the carnage began; and said the explosions were triggered not, as officials claimed, by an explosion detonated by militants but by shots fired by a vigilante who had gone to the school to try to prevent government troops from storming it.

[bob_barron 0]

Source plz

[Guest Anglesault]

Not to play Devil's Advocate here, but the situation was completely inevitable. If my friends and family were bomed from their homes, killed and maimed by indescriminate shelling, and taken into Russia never to be seen again, I might do some pretty crazy shit as well. After all, estimates of civilian casaulties are estimated at about 100,000+ in Chechnya. So, the fucktards in the school probably think what's 400 more and at least they're Russian. But like I said, if I was a fundamenalist religious whacko and another nation did this to my city...

 

 

 

 

 

 

...I might do some wacky shit too. Again, not a justification.

 

From the BBC, a best of from yet another war in the world...

 

The civilian death toll from Russia's air and artillery bombardments in Chechnya climbed sharply on Sunday, with Chechen officials reporting more than 60 dead in threee attacks.

 

The BBC's Lyndsay Marnoch reports: "Western leaders have voiced concern over Russia's use of force"

 

A correspondent for Reuters news agency witnessed the funerals of 27 people killed in the south-eastern village of Serzhen-Yurt in a bombing raid shortly after dawn.

 

Nine children were among the dead, residents said.

 

 

The Chechen authorities reported two other attacks. One was in the town of Vedeno, also in the south east, where a rocket was said to have killed 23 people.

 

Shelling was reported to have claimed the lives of another 16 people in the western village of Samashki.

 

The Russian bombardment came despite international calls for an end to Moscow's offensive in the breakaway republic after Thursday's rocket attack on the capital, Grozny, which killed around 140 people.

 

 

Russian bombers have been raiding Chechnya since early September

Chechen reports say that a further 163 people died in attacks on Friday and Saturday.

 

It was not clear how many of the dead were fighters, and how many were civilians.

 

In Thursday's attack missiles fell on a market and a maternity hospital. Many of the casualties were women and children.

 

The Russian military acknowledged firing missiles at targets around the towns of Bamut and Achkoi-Martan in the east of the breakaway republic, but said they were aimed at rebel military positions.

 

 

By 1 January, the all-out assault had given way to soldiers fighting house by house. Helicopter gunships attacked neighbourhoods and jets bombed the parliament.

 

Western journalists, including BBC correspondents, reported that the Russian artillery was indiscriminately targeting civilian apartment blocks as the capital was rocked by the sheer power of the attack.

 

The civilian war casusalties are difficult to count too. The Chechen government was the only one which tried to keep an account during the first war, which was possible because of Chechen familiy structures. Very few people went missing without anybody noticing (contrary to the Russians who usually had no family clans). The number of civilian casualties during the first war as given by the Chechen authorities was about 100,000, with several thousands still missing (mostly people taken to concentration camps inside Russia, where they disappeared). Some Russian human rights bodies counted about 80,000 victims.

 

 

The Court’s involvement came after nearly a decade of violence in Chechnya. The self-proclaimed republic attempted to split away from Russia in the early 1990s but gained little international recognition. It was claimed back by Moscow in both the war of 1994 to 1996 and during the current conflict, which began in 1999. Today Russian forces and Chechen separatists remain locked in a guerilla war. Over 100,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the two conflicts, and more than 200,000 have fled their homes. For a more complete history of events in Chechnya, see the BBC’s overview or timeline.

 

Chechens declared themselves a sovereign nation. By December 1994, Russian forces attacked Chechnya, beginning an embarrassing chapter in Russian military history. Over 100,000 Chechen civilians were killed, 6,000 Russian soldiers, most of the country razed, and 17 million land mines were scattered by Russian forces. The war ended in 1996 with a stalemate. This war, which caused an estimated $5.5 billion in economic damage, was largely the cause of Russia's national economic crisis in 1998, when the Russian government proved unable to service its huge debts.

 

In September 1999, following an incursion of Chechen militants into Dagestan, Russia re-invaded Chechnya. A few thousand Chechen guerillas, and their foreign helpers, held off 100,000 Russians until February, 2000, when they evacuated the city. They have been fighting a guerilla war ever since, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Russians and countless Chechens. Grozny was reduced to rubble by Russian bombing. Human rights organisations document Russian forces carrying out summary execution and rape of Chechen civilians.[/b\

 

 

In short, both sides were assholes and war is fucking hell.

But he's not justifying this. No sir.

[Vyce 0]

Well, jesse skyrockets up to the top of my list for completely morally reprehensible TSM posters.

 

I'll say this slowly so that he understands:

 

THERE IS NO.

 

JUSTIFICATION.

 

FOR KILLING CHILDREN.

 

EVER.

 

AS IN, EVER.

 

AS IN, EVER.

 

There, I put it in all caps so you couldn't miss the point - but something tells me you already have.

[Styles 0]

Unless they're pointing a gun at our soldiers. Wanted to clarify that in case Kamui gets confused and comes out of his hole.

[Vyce 0]

Alright, then, I'll qualify: INNOCENT children.

 

I don't give a shit WHAT has been done to the Chechnyans - even assuming they DID have some sort of justification for committing acts of terrorism and violence against Russians, that justification would extend to, at BEST, Russia's military forces.

 

Not innocent civilians, and sure as fuck not GRADE SCHOOL CHILDREN just trying to enjoy their first day of school.

[Vanhalen 0]

Some video and pictures have been released from inside the building, I wont post them here, but they are available at www.bbc.co.uk/news but be warned, they arent nice at all