Russia troops have stormed the school where hundreds of children were being held hostage by Chechen rebels today. There are rumors that the death toll could be around 100, although Russian officials say only seven were killed.
More as it develops.
UPDATE: Belmont Club has more on the situation. It sounds like the Russians have another botched rescue operation on their hands like the one in Moscow two years ago in which Russian knockout gas killed more hostages than the terrorists did.
UPDATE: Logic and Sanity also has updates from the Russian media on the situation.
Jay,
Logic and Insanity has been following this closely. He can translate Russian and has been giving updates from the Russian sources.
http://www.logicandsanity.com/archives/2004/09/school_seized_i.html
I believe that the hostage-takers started setting off bombs when the police ambulances, that the hostgae-takers had agreed could remove dead bodies, started to arrive. It wasn’t just a “botched” police attack.
This situation in Russia is a foreshadowing of what a Kerry presidency would hold for the US…Kerry is unfit to be our president in time of war….we must defeat Kerry…our lives may very well depend upon it…and that is no hyperbole…nor is that an attack on Kerry’s character…it is an attack on his judgement, which is seriously flawed…
I am sure that pretty soon some of the EUnuch spineless nincompoops will call for Russian “moderation”… They will also tell us that violence breeds more violence…
Amnesty International dummies will caution the Russians against breaching the human rights of the three captured terrorists…
The ISM will form a branch that helps the people in “occupied Chechnya”. They need a new target. After all they are having a rough time with the Israeli security forces (and probably the influx of Rachel-Corri-style useful idiots is diminishing…)
The BBC will call them “militants”…
Leading Arab and Moslem figures will tell us that it was a Jewish-Zionist plot. Many idiots in the West, most of them on college campuses, will agree…
Ah, no word from Kofi yet? He is kinda busy getting immunized in Darfur with a repeat shot. He got the first one in Rwanda (Remember his title then? Head of UN Peacekeeping. What a failed pathetic bureaucrat with a moral spine of a jellyfish !!).
AS far as I recall history, Stalin expelled all (or at least, most of) the Chechens to Siberia for collaborating with the Nazis during WW2. Can’t remember the name of the idiot who allowed them back into Chechnya…
I believe that the hostage-takers started setting off bombs when the police ambulances, that the hostgae-takers had agreed could remove dead bodies, started to arrive.
A number of eyewitnesses report that the first explosion came from outside the school.
I’m not sure what this does to your theory but the firsthand reports plus the staggering delay in government response suggest that this was another botch job by the Russian government.
just look at the main roof that collapsed: it was clearly shot from the outside, preparing the attack of russian troops.
You rape, torture and manipulate a population because they want their freedom: you get Beslan.
You take over the millions of the world economy, with no consideration for people living with 1$/year: you get your WTC.
Does anyone still think that running after them with tanks will appease them?
You ban Islamic headscarves, you get two dead journalists.
One of these days, Beslan will be Orleans, or Nantes, or Paris.
And when that day comes, perhaps you’ll finally fucking wake up to reality.