Russian school held by terrorists..what to do ?

[toto67]

just watching there and 5 of the hostage takers have been killed:censored
most of the children who were taken hostage are alive but the downside
is some have been killed

[4me2]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=* border=0 valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=LargeTitle>100 DEAD IN SCHOOL SIEGE</TD></TR><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>The three-day school siege in Russia is coming to a dramatic and bloody end with reports of a large number dead.


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.

Gunfire is continuing as Russian special forces face pockets of resistance.

The soldiers stormed the building after the gunmen opened fire on a group of children who were trying to escape.

As the school turned into a battleground, many children streamed out, almost naked and gasping for water. Other hostages were pulled free and collapsed on the ground outside, exhausted, shocked and disorientated.

Sky's Rachel Amatt, reporting from inside the school, said the situation had descended into chaos with parents flooding into the school grounds as the fighting continued.
Some of the hostage-takers managed to escape and are holed up in the town of Beslan.

Reports say they were cornered in a house which is being attacked by tanks and special forces.

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

An armed group of about 40 men and women stormed the school on Wednesday during a start-of-term celebration.

They freed 32 people, including several described as "infants", on Thursday.

Fifteen hostages were allowed out on Wednesday.

The Russian government had maintained it wanted the stand-off ended peacefully.




http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...211973,00.html

[4me2]

apparently 9 of the hostage takers were of Arabic decent according to skynews.

[GavDF]

apparently 9 of the hostage takers were of Arabic decent according to skynews.

just seen that on sky too, no confirmation from anyone in russia yet tho

[leonard]

my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Russia, a sad time for the whole world. just when will it end. leonard.

[CzarJunkie]

my thoughts and prayers are with the people of Russia, a sad time for the whole world. just when will it end. leonard.

My thoughts and prayers are with the chechyn people too, maybe if we'd thought and prayed for them a little more in the past this atrocity might not have happened.

[4me2]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Siege school yields more bodies






</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=416><!-- S BO --><!-- S IBOX --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=208 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5></TD><TD class=sibtbg>




</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IBOX -->More than 320 bodies have been pulled from the rubble of the school in southern Russia where a hostage siege ended in a bloodbath, officials say.



Work has been slowed by the presence of mines in the building, where militants demanding Chechen independence held children and adults for three days.

Smoke still hung over the school, where hundreds were also injured, as President Putin visited the casualties. The Russian leader confirmed there had been no plans to storm the building.

"We are still identifying the bodies. We have recovered 322 bodies, 155 of them are children," Russia's Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky told reporters in the North Ossetian town of Beslan on Saturday.

"These are not the final figures, and they will probably grow, but not by too much," he said according to AFP news agency.

Agonising wait

A large number of the dead and wounded are believed to be children who were celebrating the start of the new school year with parents and staff when they were seized by militants on Wednesday morning.

<!-- S IBOX --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=416 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=sibtbg>


1 - At 0850GMT a vehicle from the emergencies ministry is sent in to retrieve the bodies of those killed at the start of the siege.
2 - A series of blasts rock the gym, bringing the roof down.
3 - Hostages start running. The attackers fire at them to try to block their escape, prompting the troops outside to shoot back.





<!-- S ILIN -->How the siege ended
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The BBC's Jonathan Charles reports from Beslan that relatives of former hostages have spent the night scouring lists of the dead and injured.

Many still do not know whether their children survived as the overstretched hospitals have been too busy performing emergency surgery on casualties to issue the names of all those being treated.

Mr Putin told survivors at a Beslan hospital that the whole of Russia grieved for the victims of the siege and he appeared to reject any blame for its bloody outcome.

Commandos went into action after a series of explosions inside the school, at least one of which appears to have been the accidental detonation of a bomb planted by the militants.

<!-- S IBOX --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=208 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD width=5></TD><TD class=sibtbg> If the toddlers started to cry, the fighters would fire blanks in the air






<!-- S ILIN -->Eyewitness: Hostage's terror
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</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IBOX -->

Mr Putin said there had been no plans to storm the school.

"Events unfolded quite quickly and unexpectedly, according to a logic of their own," he said.

The Russian leader, known for his hard line on Chechen separatism, told security officials in Beslan that the attackers had sought to "stoke ethnic hatred" across the Russian North Caucasus.

"Anyone who will feels sympathetic towards such provocations will be viewed as accomplices of terrorists and terrorism," he said.

Hunt for militants

North Ossetia's borders, which extend to Chechnya itself, have been sealed in the hunt for up to four militants believed to have escaped during the melee on Friday.

A Russian commander said troops had been hindered in their efforts to secure the school by crowds of local people, many of them armed, desperately trying to reach their relatives inside the school. A police source told Russian news agency Interfax that 10 commandos had died in the fighting and 18 were wounded. The Russian security forces have said they killed 27 militants and captured three at the school. <!-- E BO -->





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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3627030.stm

[4me2]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Massacre tests Archbishop's faith


</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=416><!-- S BO --><!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> The siege at a school in Ossetia ended in a bloodbath on Friday

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->The "evil" of the terrorists' actions in the Russian school massacre has tested even the Archbishop of Canterbury's faith, he has admitted.

It would be inhumane not to question one's beliefs, Dr Rowan Williams told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"I think it is probably the suffering of children that most deeply challenges anybody's personal faith," he said.

"When you see the depth of energy that people can put into such evil, then... there is a flicker, there is a doubt."



Life sentences

"It would be inhumane, I think, not to react that way."

But he insisted the murdered children had not been abandoned by God, who had given humans freedom to make decisions and did not intervene, even in acts such as this massacre.

He quoted Jesus as saying it would be better for people who committed offences against children to have millstones put around their necks and be cast into the sea. "They were performing perhaps the most evil kind of action that we can imagine," he said. He called for the terrorists to be jailed for life but did not want to see them given death sentences. <!-- E BO -->



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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3627070.stm

[beekae]

My thoughts and prayers are with the chechyn people too, maybe if we'd thought and prayed for them a little more in the past this atrocity might not have happened.

My thought are with the Chechyns too,because their act of "islamic diplomacy",hopefully will be answered in kind.
Sooner or later people are going to realise that pro-activeness is the only way to subdue un-civilised nations,with no value for any human life.

I use the word "nations" loosely.

If terrorism,kidnapping and torture is what "islam" understands,then the full force of the CIVILISED nations should be used against them.

For every attrocity of murder on a human being,I'd wipe out one village.
Addresses will now be available to the Russian government.

...or we could be all diplomatic,and talk about it.. :|

[the_wizzard]

My thought are with the Chechyns too,because their act of "islamic diplomacy",hopefully will be answered in kind.
Sooner or later people are going to realise that pro-activeness is the only way to subdue un-civilised nations,with no value for any human life.

I use the word "nations" loosely.

If terrorism,kidnapping and torture is what "islam" understands,then the full force of the CIVILISED nations should be used against them.

For every attrocity of murder on a human being,I'd wipe out one village.
Addresses will now be available to the Russian government.

...or we could be all diplomatic,and talk about it.. :|

i agree to a point, but i think the chechen people are not as bad as it seem's i blame the islamic influence by arab's for there action's same as bosnia.

i say that cos most of the horrible pic's i seen of bosnia where of arab's holding serb head's!!

[beekae]

Can someone explain to me the difference between Islamic,Moslem,Middle-Eastern and Arabic.
Im not being funny,I appreciate religions and races,but why and when are distinctions drawn ?
I apologise if im going off on one,but im totally sick to the stomach of liberals and anti-westerners justifying every terrorist attack with a "but","although" or"you've got to understand"

There is no excuse for murdering civilians,much less children.

[beekae]

Incidentally,i think the last option of the poll(as suggested by czar,and inserted by A N Other) should be removed,in fact maybe time to close thread altogether,out of respect if nothing else.

[4me2]

Incidentally,i think the last option of the poll(as suggested by czar,and inserted by A N Other) should be removed,in fact maybe time to close thread altogether,out of respect if nothing else.

The thread will remain open because Im convinced more facts will be released as to exactly what happened over the next few weeks. As yet the russian govt has been very cadgey and told some outright lies in its annoucements.

They were saying the school was under total control while I and many others were watching live pictures of gun battles still going on yesterday.

[4me2]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=629 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=3>Analysis: The hostage-takers


</TD></TR><TR><TD vAlign=top width=416><!-- S BO --><!-- S IBYL --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=416 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom>Stephen Mulvey
BBC News Online Russian affairs analyst
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

<!-- E IBYL -->

Confusion reigns over the identity of the group who seized the school in North Ossetia taking hostage more than 1,000 children and their parents and teachers.

<!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> Russia says there were at least 30 hostage-takers

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->The Russian authorities are telling one story, and Chechen sources are telling another. It may take time for the truth to emerge.

The Russian version says the hostage-takers were a multi-national group linked to the radical Chechen rebel commanders Shamil Basayev and Doku Umarov, funded by al-Qaeda.

The Chechen version, as put forward by the Chechen rebel envoy in Europe, Ahmed Zakayev, is that the attackers may have been Ossetians, Russians or Ingush - but not Chechens.

The pro-rebel Kavkaz Center website suggests the leaders may have been Ossetian Islamists - from a home-grown militant group or Jama'at. Most Ossetians are Christian or pagan, but a minority are Muslim.

The two accounts are not in fact mutually exclusive.

Either would explain the reported presence of Arabs among the attackers.

Also two men Russian forces believe may have been among the ringleaders are Magomet Yevloyev, said by some sources to be an Ingush, and Vladimir Khodov, a resident of North Ossetia (they are thought to have used the codenames Magas and Abdulla).

Both reportedly took part in the attacks on the Ingush interior ministry in June, under the leadership of Basayev and Umarov.

Motives

It is not just the identity of the attackers that is unclear. Neither were their demands, which were never clearly articulated to the media.

Initially, they were reported to have called for the release of fighters arrested in Ingushetia in connection with the June raid. Then they were said to have called for the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya.

On the second day of the siege, Russian sources said the attackers did not appear to be making any clear demands. Then - on the third day - the North Ossetian leader said they were demanding independence for Chechnya.

There seems to be no doubt that some of them regarded the attack on the school as a suicide mission.

For the women reported to have been wearing belts of explosives - probably widows or relatives of men killed by Russian forces in the Caucasus - revenge and martyrdom may have been more important than political goals.

Radicalism

But despite all the confusion surrounding the Beslan outrage, the incident would appear to underline some trends.

<!-- S IIMA --><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width=203 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR><TD> Russia faces formidable warlords in Chechnya

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!-- E IIMA -->One is that instability appears to be spreading out from Chechnya again - whether or not Chechens have been directly involved in all cases.

There were the attacks in Ingushetia in June - carried out by Chechens and Ingush. In the last two weeks, there has been a wave of deadly attacks in Moscow. This time the target was North Ossetia, one of the most loyal of Russia's North Caucasian republics.

Earlier, there was a series of attacks on trains in southern Russia. This all lends grim credibility to Chechen warnings that they have the power to step up guerrilla attacks in Russia.

Secondly, the horror of the Beslan attack - in which the primary victims were innocent children - indicates that Russia's enemies in the North Caucasus are becoming increasingly radical.

Reliable reports from Chechnya suggest that Mr Maskhadov, though he remains the titular chief of the rebels, has been sidelined by radicals such as Basayev and Umarov and Saudi-born Abu Al-Walid - the leader of the Chechen Islamists, and reportedly the distributor of funding from the Muslim world. It will be no consolation to the Russian authorities if Basayev - who made his name seizing a maternity hospital in southern Russia in 1995 and orchestrated the seizure of hostages at a Moscow theatre two years ago - turns out not to have been involved in the Beslan attack. That will just show that there are more wild and dangerous warlords out there than previously thought. <!-- E BO -->



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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3627586.stm

[4me2]

<TABLE cellSpacing=1 cellPadding=0 width=440 border=1><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=center>SCHOOL SIEGE TOLL CLIMBING

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>



Officials in Beslan say 260 people are still missing after the school siege which has devastated the town.

It raises the prospect that over 600 adults and children lost their lives during the three day drama - almost twice the earlier estimate.

This morning the death toll was put at just under 370 including the 35 gunmen, who were all killed when troops stormed the building.

The news of the higher casualty rate camer as residents of Beslan prepared to bury the victims of the siege.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has vowed to reform the country's security services after the disastrous end to the three-day drama in North Ossetia.

Mr Putin admitted the country had not been ready to deal with the threat from militants.

"We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," he said in an address on national television.

He confirmed he would authorise more funding for security forces and border controls.

"What happened was a terrorist act that was inhuman and unprecedented in its cruelty.

"This is not just a challenge to the president, or to the parliament, but the whole of Russia," he said.

Muslim separatists, including Arab mercenaries, are believed to have been responsible for the siege.

The kidnappers had demanded Russian troops withdraw from Chechnya in return for the safe release of the hostages.

Relatives of the deceased have been allowed to enter the burned out shell of the school gymnasium where 1,000 people were held for 62 hours.

Others scoured lists of names to see if their loved ones had survived when commandos stormed the building after hearing explosions.

Officials said earlier 333 people including 156 children had been killed and more than 540 people were injured - mostly school pupils.

Around 450 people are still being treated in hospital.

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...214642,00.html

[GavDF]

Babys stabbed and girls raped

BLOODBATH AT BESLAN:
156 children among victims

323 dead

By Ryan Sabey

THE death toll in the Russian school atrocity stood at 323 last night, 156 of them children.

The grim figure was issued as the full horror of the massacre unfolded, with witnesses telling how the Chechen terrorists STABBED toddlers and RAPED children.

At mortuaries, the gruesome task faced by parents trying to identify their little ones became a living nightmare as they realised many of the tiny bodies were mutilated almost beyond recognition.

And last night doctors predicted the death toll would hit 400 due to the appalling injuries suffered by another 500 victims.

One medic warned: "Many of those who live will be invalids. Some do not have eyes."

Alexander Nekrasow, a Russian government advisor, described how babies had been subjected to knife attacks from the militants. He said: "One of them is a child, 18 months old, with several knife wounds."

Other survivors described how 15-year-old girls screamed in agony as they were raped by the terrorists.

Last night it emerged the fanatics had planned the atrocity months in advance, hiding weapons and explosives inside the school while posing as workmen rebuilding its gym during the summer.

Carnage

Regional Minister Boris Dzgoyev said 35 Muslim hostage-takers had been killed.

Local officials said ten Arabs were among the terrorists.

The appalling carnage created a global backlash, including revulsion in the Arab world.

There were calls for Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who Russians blame for the outrage, to be exterminated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Beslan to offer his condolences as criticism mounted over how the siege was handled.

Later, in an address to his nation, Mr Putin put Russia on a full-scale war footing, vowed to crack down on the terrorist threat facing his country and declared tomorrow and Tuesday as days of national mourning.

[4me2]

gav always post links to your sources m8.

[GavDF]

sorry thought it was at the top,its out of todays news of the world so i can expect to be slated


http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/stor...ws/news1.shtml

[GavDF]

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/stor...ws/news2.shtml

BLOODBATH AT BESLAN: Child survivors
tell their nightmare story

He ordered us to pray
and threw a grenade

From Will Stewart in Russia

THE children who survived the horror of Beslan yesterday relived visions of hell that will scar their souls for ever.

Sasha Pogrebov, 13, was the first to flee the mayhem as the siege reached its bloody climax in a firestorm of explosions and bullets.

Yesterday he was in hospital, his tiny body covered in burns. He had been held in the gym—once his favourite place.

"The rebels were so cruel with us, especially on Friday morning," he sobbed. "They didn't allow us to drink. Almost all of us were drinking urine. It's all we could do.

"We were undressed and one rebel noticed a little Orthodox cross round my neck. He came up to me, poked it with the barrel of his gun and said, ‘You, non-Muslim! Pray!'

‘So I began to pray to Jesus loudly...and they started throwing grenades into the crowd."

Schoolpal Zalina Vazagova, 13, was in terror too as the blasts started. "I heard a terrible crack above my head and closed my eyes," she said. "When I opened them I thought everyone around me was dead. I couldn't understand—was I alive or dead?

"There was so much blood all over me. One granny was lying nearby with a hole in her head.

"The body of our PE teacher had fallen on me. All the kids were crying ‘Please don't shoot! Please don't kill us!' But the rebels didn't listen. I was sitting near them and they forced me and some other girls to run.

"Luckily I came by an open window and just jumped out. A man in army uniform caught me and brought me to the ambulance."

Sobbing, she added: "My 10-year-old sister Lena was left inside there. I don't know if she's alive."

Survivor Salimat Suleimanova was put through a mother's ultimate torment by the terror gang.

She was released early with her two-month-old daughter Amina—but was forced to leave her son Shamil in the school.

Racked with guilt, she sobbed yesterday: "I begged the rebels on my knees to let me take him but they refused. Now I don't know where he is. It was only his first day at school. They didn't even allow me to go back and say goodbye to my son."

The distraught mum added: "Of about 1,200 hostages in there, many lay unconscious by the end of the second day without food and water.

"From time to time rebels took those out, poured water over their heads and threw them back into the crowd. The rebels took some men—the strongest, fittest ones—upstairs and soon we heard shooting. We presume they murdered them, although they claimed they were shot by Russian soldiers from their tanks outside."

Brave Diana Gadzhieva, 14, escaped along with 11-year-old sister Alina—then told how their mother also faced a nightmare decision when the rebels wanted to release her and their three-year-old sister Madina.

"We got so scared when Mum was leaving," said Diana. "But still we both begged her to go. Madina was crying almost all the time and the rebels got more and more nervous and irritated. I feared one moment they'd just shoot our mum.

"The rebels never allowed us to drink and eat. Some kids grabbed flowers and plants from a classroom and ate them.

"They also hid some in their knickers to share with others. It's not that bad to be hungry, much worse to be thirsty. I saw kids drinking their own urine.

"It was so hot inside there, that's why we were undressed. The rebels ordered us to lie down on the floor with our faces down. They vowed to shoot anyone who looked up."

Diana noticed the rise in tension on Friday. "We heard an explosion somewhere near, then gunfire," she said. "Panic started and a few boys jumped out of the windows.

"My sister and I didn't want to run out, we were scared of being shot dead. But then the second explosion came. It was just over our heads and something heavy fell down on us and others.

"People were shouting and I looked up and saw so many children around me lying in blood and not moving. Just next to me there was a dead woman all covered in blood. I also saw many arms and legs that had been torn away.

"All the bombs were connected with cords and started blowing up one after another, getting closer and closer to us.

"So I took Alina's hand and we ran to the window and jumped out. We were running as quickly as possible and our backs were terribly hot. We did not get any serious burns, though, so we went straight home.

"But our mum wasn't there. She'd been taken to hospital, Now she's feeling really bad because of all the stress. But, thank God, we're all OK."

Tales of incredible heroism emerged from the carnage, too.

Fifteen-year-old Arkadiy Zankaev said: "The floor was completely blown up near us. I was too weak and couldn't get out. But my friend Azamat Bekov saved me.

"He pushed me through an open window and then helped me escape.

"After the first explosion everyone had run to the windows. The elder kids helped the younger ones. Our parents followed us. But the rebels were shooting at us from the roof."

Arkadiy said his captors had spoken Russian and sometimes another language he couldn't identify when they talked among themselves.

"When I asked one of them for a drink, he hit me with a gun butt and shouted, ‘It's forbidden!'

"Many kids suffered from severe headaches. It was extremely hot inside the gym.

"Adults tore their clothes off and soaked them in their own urine to use as compresses on children's heads. It was such a horrid smell. My head was stinking so badly.

"We also saw the terrorists tear off hostages' civilian clothes so they could disguise themselves and escape into the town."

School cook Sima Albegova will never forget the nightmare conditions inside the siege.

"There were about 1,000 people in there just packed like sardines," she said.

"There was no way for all of us to sleep at the same time. There was no space.

"By Friday morning conditions were so bad that people could hardly breathe. Most of the kids were almost unconscious," said Sima.

"Those who could move started to pee into shoes and then drink the urine. It was all we could do. They'd take several sips then stop and cry because their chapped lips were burning.

"I begged the terrorists for water but they just said, ‘Go away! They will survive.' But so many have not."

After the great escape, little Marina Khudanova, aged seven, was lying in a field outside the hospital awaiting treatment.

Her thin legs were covered with fir-tree needles but she was too weak to brush them off. Her hair was matted with blood and her lips covered with soot.

"I am brave," she said. "But I will not go to school again. I will never go to that school. I will stay at home with Mummy." Twelve-year-old Dzerase Dzetskelova told her mother Indira that several 15-year-olds were raped by their captors and she had to listen to the victims' awful cries and screams.

Telling of her escape, Dzerase said: "We had to jump over dead bodies."

Then the traumatised youngster screamed: "Oh God no, don't make me remember it. Can I ever forget it? Is it possible one day I'll forget it?"

But she recovered her composure and continued: "The terrorists started to shoot at us from the roof. I saw kids and women fall to the ground. Then I looked up and saw that vermin's face.

"I saw his smile as he killed my friends."

[CzarJunkie]

News of the World, pah, you'd be better off reading Dandy m8.