BESLAN, Russia (AP) - At least seven people were killed and 310 others wounded Friday, reports said, after commandos stormed a school in southern Russia where hundreds had been held hostage for three days by rebels strapped with explosives.
Troops killed five of the hostage-takers but 13 others escaped, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. Troops backed by tanks were pursuing the militants, some of whom were said to be holed up in a house in the area, ITAR-Tass said.
Russian authorities claimed to have control of the school, and the Interfax news agency reported that all the hostages had been evacuated from the school gymnasium. But gunfire continued to ring out some three hours after the commandos' raid, and huge columns of smoke billowed from the building.
The scene around the school was chaotic: people running through the streets, heavy smoke overhead, the cries of children and the wounded carried off on stretchers. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood.
Seven people were killed in the raid, ITAR-Tass said, and some 310 hostages _ most of them children _ were wounded, officials from the regional Health Ministry told the news agency. At least four of the dead were children. Sixty-nine children were admitted to one hospital _ five in grave condition, the head of the hospital said. A nurse spreading sheets on stretchers told The Associated Press that Russian officials expected "very many" wounded.
It was not immediately clear what led to the events Friday, the third day of the hostage crisis in Beslan, but on Friday, a top regional leader said the militants had demanded that Russian troops pull out of Chechnya _ the first official information firmly linking the attack to the Chechen war.
Early reports suggested the militants had agreed to let Russia retrieve the bodies of 10 to 20 hostages who had been killed. A local legislator, Azamat Kadykov, had told the hostages' relatives that 20 adult men had been executed.
Emergency personnel went to get the bodies, and the militants began setting off bombs and opening fire on people around the school, ITAR-Tass said. Some 30 women and children broke out of the building, some bloodied and screaming, and commandos then launched the assault.
The militants reportedly fired at children who ran from the building, and unconfirmed reports said some of the hostage-takers, possibly including women bearing suicide belts, had fled during the chaos and may have taken hostages with them.
During the raid, the militants were separated into three groups _ some with hostages, police told Interfax.
Women escaping the building were seen fainting and others, some covered in blood, were carried away on stretchers.
Interfax said the school's roof had collapsed _ possibly from the explosives some militants had strapped to their bodies. The militants reportedly wired parts of the school with bombs and threatened to blow up the building if authorities tried to storm.
There were conflicting reports of the number of hostages being held at the school. Officials had initially said about 350 _ but some freed hostages among a small group freed Thursday put the number at about 1,500. On Thursday, the militants had freed about 26 hostages, all women and children.
On Friday, Alexander Dzasokhov, president of the republic of North Ossetia, which borders Chechnya, made the statement after a meeting with relatives of the hostages.
Russian officials had negotiated on and off with the militants since shortly after the crisis began, and they said the hostage-takers had repeatedly refused offers of food and water.
"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."
President Vladimir Putin had said that everything possible would be done to end the "horrible" crisis and save the lives of the children.
Two major hostage-taking raids by Chechen rebels outside the war-torn 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.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Analysis: Is Al-Qaeda Operating Inside Russia? By Roman Kupchinsky
The United States is harboring a Chechen rebel. Islamic fundamentalism and Chechnya-based groups are thought to be linked to al-Qaeda which is the same as Bush giving asylum to al-Qaeda. #msg-3954890
Commenting on the plane crashes following his informal summit in Sochi on 31 August with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "If one of the terrorist organizations has claimed responsibility for this and it is linked to Al-Qaeda, that is a fact that confirms the link between certain forces operating on the territory of Chechnya and international terrorism."
Friday, 03 September 2004
The claims of responsibility by a relatively unknown terrorist group for the downing of two airliners on 24 August and a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station on 31 August have fuelled speculation that, for the first time, Russia is being targeted by an international terrorist organization aiding the Chechen cause.
Following the air catastrophes that killed 89 people, a group calling itself the Islambuli Brigades and claiming to be associated with Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the twin attacks in a message posted on the Internet and dated 26 August.
"We in the Islambuli Brigades declare that our mujahedin managed to hijack two Russian planes, and the mujahedin were crowned with success despite problems they initially faced, with a team of five mujahedin on each plane," the statement read, according to an English-language version posted on http://www.globalterroralert.com.
"Russia's slaughter of Muslims is still continuing and will not stop except for a bloody war," the message continued. "Our mujahedin were able with God's help to deal a first strike, which will be followed by other operations in a campaign aimed at helping our Muslim brothers in Chechnya and other Muslim countries enduring Russia's atheism."
Commenting on the plane crashes following his informal summit in Sochi on 31 August with French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "If one of the terrorist organizations has claimed responsibility for this and it is linked to Al-Qaeda, that is a fact that confirms the link between certain forces operating on the territory of Chechnya and international terrorism."
That evening, a woman detonated explosives outside Moscow's Rizhskaya subway station, killing nine people and injuring about 50, an act that was followed by two communiques in which the Islambuli Brigades initially denied, but later claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.
"We in the Islambuli Brigades declare our responsibility for this operation, even though we denied it before because the news had not reached us by that time," read the second of the two 31 August messages. "This heroic operation, as we have warned you, is an extension of a wave of support and assistance to the Chechen Muslims. Allah willing, this will continue with coming waves until we humiliate the infidel country known as Russia and launch attacks on the evil Putin, who has carried out the slaughter of Muslims time and again ever since he took a tyrannical leadership position in Russia.
"The targeting of Russia is only the beginning of a fierce and bloody war in the face of those who have devoted themselves to the eradication of Islam and the murder of its faithful," the message continued. "And this war will serve to dissuade the criminals in the Russian government from killing Muslims and violating the honor of the Muslims in Chechnya, and the rest of the Muslim countries in the region."
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov commented on the suicide bombing by saying on 1 September that "this is not the first terrorist attack, and I fear it's not the last.... A war is being waged on us, a war where the enemy is invisible and there are no front lines."
The same day, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "the Russian authorities are convinced that the terrorist attacks are organized by Chechen separatists sponsored by the international Islamic terrorist movement. Those forces are enraged by stabilization in Chechnya, and specifically by the election of a president [Alu Alkhanov] on 29 August, so they are doing all they can to destabilize the situation.... These terrorist attacks do not indicate any lack of stability in Chechnya. They merely prove that international terrorists dislike the process of stabilization and aim to disrupt it."
The timing of the attacks -- on the eve of Chechnya's 29 August presidential elections -- and the apparent coordination involved in downing the planes nearly simultaneously, indicate that these were not two "black widow" suicide bombers acting alone.
However, it should be noted that the Islambuli Brigades' claims of responsibility for the acts did contain some inconsistencies. The group's claim that teams of five members boarded and seized the planes goes against public comments that Russian investigators have made regarding the attacks. They maintain that the passenger jets were not hijacked, but were destroyed by blasts without warning.
Furthermore, the existence of the Islambuli Brigades was unknown prior to its claim of responsibility for a failed assassination attempt on Pakistani Prime Minister-designate Shawkat Aziz on 31 July, and while it is possible that this group does, in fact, exist, very little is know about it or its members, although it is believed to be named after Khaled Islambuli, the leader of a group that assassinated Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.
So, while caution should be exhibited in laying full blame on the Islambuli Brigades until additional information is gathered, the Internet postings claiming responsibility for the attacks -- and their claimed affiliation with Al-Qaeda -- nevertheless make the mysterious group the prime suspect in the ongoing investigations. author biography
I was waiting for two responses regarding the Russian school hostage situation.
First, I thought if Putin was to some degree blaming the United States we might see a rise in oil prices through Yukos. A familiar ploy of Puts. This did happen.
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