September 03, 2004

Russian school siege ended, few terrorists flee

"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," he said. Interfax reported a similar number.

Tass news agency said there were more than 400 wounded, and witnesses saw around 20 bodies at a hospital morgue.

Rebels fled with soldiers in pursuit. The authorities said events had forced their hand after insisting from the outset they would not resort to violence.

Manyon said police had told him some children had tried to escape and that, when the captors fired and chased them, the troops opened fire and the battle began. Moments earlier, authorities said they had sent a vehicle to fetch the bodies of people killed in Wednesday's seizure of the school.

"No military action was planned. We were planning further talks," the regional head of the FSB security service, Valery Andreyev, told RTR television.

Tass quoted a source in the regional interior ministry as saying the school seizure had been planned by Shamil Basayev, Russia's most wanted Chechen rebel, and led by field commander Magomet Yevloyev. The source said there was information that it had been financed by Abu Omar As-Seyf, who was believed to be Al Qaeda's representative in Chechnya. (more...)

Russian Special Forces soldier rescues child.

Logic and Sanity has absolutely incredible coverage...
Permalink is here:

[...]The Mufti of Chechnya has some strong words for these terroristis. In his denounciation of their act he refers to them as "terrorist-criminals" who have "once again shown their beastly face".

He stated that these "terrorist-criminals" are people without a religion and definately are not muslim. Those who know Islam would not use the word together with "terrorism" in the same sentence, he said, because "Islam is a great religion, which calls onto its followers to commit good to others people and nations".

"Muslims of Chechnya are ready to do whatever is necessary to help free the hostages", he underlined.

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".

Terrorist's official mouthpiece is claiming that it's the Russian SWAT that is killing the hostages.

Those people are sick.

And those websites (INCLUDING the BBC) need to stop referring to them as GUNMEN or a "gang" and start indicating what they truly are, TERRORISTS! A spade is a spade!



What I am curious to know is why the Chechen rebels insisted on negotiating with this man, the prominent Russian pediatrician Leonid Roshal, who also aided hostages during the Moscow theater crisis in 2002.


Yahoo Photo Slideshow of the crisis can be found here.
UPDATE:
Voina.ru reports that all nuclear installations in Russia are now being re-enforced with troops. No other details reported.

Meanwhile...


Pravda reports: All US-bound planes from Russia are under suspicion

Multiple sources report: ten Arabs were among the 20 militants

Posted by Kyer at September 3, 2004 04:18 PM
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