Looks like the siege came to a violent end. :eek: :(

http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1237386.jpg

http://static.sky.com/images/pictures/1237391.jpg

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Too early for any concrete details but it looks like the hostage takers tried to flee. 158 children got rescued and 5 hostage takers are dead. Apparently the Russian army is in "complete control" of the school. No mention of how many casualties at this stage.

Details still happening as we speak, I'm watching it on Sky News at the moment.

That is exactly what needs to be done elsewhere.

Dozens Killed as Shootout Ends Russian School Siege
Fri Sep 3, 2004 09:35 AM ET


By Richard Ayton and Oliver Bullough
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Dozens were killed when Russian troops stormed a school Friday in a chaotic battle to free hundreds of parents, teachers and children who had been held hostage for 53 hours by Chechen separatists.

Naked children ran for safety, screaming amid machinegun fire and explosions while attack helicopters clattered overhead.

Julian Manyon, a reporter for Britain's ITV television news, said his cameraman had seen up to 100 bodies in the gymnasium of the school in Beslan, in the North Ossetia region adjoining Chechnya, after the hostage-takers left:

"Our cameraman ... told me that in his estimation there are as many as 100 dead bodies, I am afraid, lying on the smoldering floor of the gymnasium where we know that a large number of the hostages were being held."

The Tass news agency said there more than 400 wounded. Russian news agencies said at least seven people had been dead on arrival at hospital. Rebels fled with soldiers in pursuit.

In the chaotic hours after the battle began, half- or fully naked children gulped from bottles of water after two days without food or drink in a stiflingly hot and crowded school.

"I smashed the window to get out," one young boy with a bandaged hand told Russian television. "People were running in all directions ... They (the rebels) shot from the roof."

It was unclear what had triggered the battle, shortly after Russia insisted it would not resort to force.

The prolonged fighting and scenes of chaos suggested that, if Russian forces had planned to storm the building, their hand had been forced before they were ready.


CONSEQUENCES

The outcome of the siege may have repercussions for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000 on a promise to restore order in Chechnya after years of violent rebellion and hostage-takings similar to the one in Beslan.

Over 129 hostages and 41 rebels died when Putin sent troops to overpower Chechen rebels who had seized a Moscow theater in 2002. But the violence in the region and elsewhere in Russia has continued.

Tass said troops had blown a hole in a wall of the school to let hostages escape. It also said soldiers were battling gunmen who had fled to the house in the south of the town.

Interfax said some of the hostage-takers, believed to number about 40, had tried to break out through crowds of frantic relatives waiting near the school as special forces moved in.

NTV television said five hostage-takers had been killed.

Officials had said some 500 people were being held in the school in North Ossetia, near Chechnya, but released hostages said the number could be nearer to 1,500 people lying on top of one another in increasingly desperate conditions.

The clashes appeared to have begun shortly after authorities said they had sent a vehicle to the school to fetch bodies. Various reports said this had been followed by a break-out attempt by either hostages or rebels.

Alexander Dzasokhov, president of the province of North Ossetia, said earlier the masked gunmen had demanded an independent Chechnya, the first clear link between them and the decade-long separatist rebellion in the neighboring province.

One unidentified woman freed 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."


WAVE OF ATTACKS

Attacks linked to Chechen separatists have surged this month as Chechnya elected a head for its pro-Moscow administration to replace an assassinated predecessor.

Last week, suicide bombers were blamed for the near-simultaneous crash of two passenger planes in which 90 people died. This week, in central Moscow, a suicide bomber blew herself up, killing nine people.

Russian media have speculated that the gunmen could belong to separatist forces under Magomed Yevloyev, an Ingush who is believed to have led a mass assault on Ingushetia in June.

A representative of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov in London repeated denials of involvement by forces loyal to him and condemned the hostage-takers, saying:

"This is a monstrous act ... There is no way to justify what they have done," Akhmed Zakayev told Channel 4 news.

Izvestia said 860 pupils attended School No. 1. But the number of people on the campus would have been swollen by parents and relatives attending the first-day ceremony traditional in Russian schools.

Up to 16 people were believed to have been killed in the early stages of the assault.
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Source: Reuters

[ 09-03-2004, 10:29 AM: Message edited by: Stratos ]

You wonder what?

How long you allow them to die 1 by 1?

Their is NO -negotiating with a group like this. When they deny children water, and fire weapons over their heads to quell them, then in my eyes, they have sealed their own fate!

How many of the dead were already that way? Why were the children naked? That alone gets my blood boiling!

I forgot what I was wondering, that's why I edited my post. ;)

Well, it was what needed to be done, but this was a far cry from the Israeli rescue in Entebe. A lot of dead hostages. I gotta think something shoulda been done different, even if it was just sending in a better type of antiterrorist troop.

I hate to say it...because in this, I think the Russians have the right spirit, but every time there's a terrorist action, they kill a bunch of bystanders....

I know it's difficult, what with guns firing everywhere, but the Russian approach of full siege doesn't seem like the best of things.

<font face="Verdana" size="3" color="#00FF00">Well I am not sure if the situation could have been handled differently. It would have been better if less deaths occurred among the hostages. However they only stormed the school after the terrorist started shooting hostages when the hostages heard explosions and started to flee. While we like to say it could have been better, it could also have been much worse as Felix pointed out.</font>

[ 09-03-2004, 11:07 AM: Message edited by: pritchke ]

Yep, over 150 dead, many of them children, 13 terrorists on the run,many people still being held hostage, oh yesiree that's what needs to be done alright, size 15 boots anyone ? . Have they never heard of a plan ? parents and villiagers running all over the place, when they should be well out of the area, which would make identification of suspects easier, police and soldiers wearing at least 4 different types of uniforms,who do you shoot at ? I realise these people are beyond reason, but this is a mess on the grandest scale, even though the assualt was forced on them but they could have planed it better.

Aweful scenario. Some parents were forced into chosing which of their kids would go free earlier. What a nightmare.