Blood of Beslan's innocents
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
THE Russian school siege reached a catastrophic climax yesterday as
terrorists carried out their threat to blow up the building, killing at
least 200 people, many of them children, and injuring more than 700.
A series of explosions marked the beginning of the end. Russian special
forces stormed the building and fought pitched gun battles with the
terrorists who had taken over the school in the Caucasian town of Beslan.
Explosives had been packed around children herded into the gym: one re****t
said that bombs hung in basketball hoops in the hall exploded; another
said
that a female suicide bomber blew herself up.
The roof came down, fires started. Bodies lay charred and burned beneath
the debris and children in their underwear fled from the building as
gunfire crackled around them.
Smoke poured from the wrecked building. More than 100 bodies were said to
be lying in the gym while outside the bodies of more dead children lay on
stretchers. Mothers held them and wept.
The death toll rose and rose; by last night it had reached more than 200.
Officials warned it would go much higher.
Last night, Russia pointed the finger of blame at Chechen and Arab
terrorists with links to al-Qaeda.
Later Russian forces said they had killed 27 hostage takers - ten of the
them from Arab countries - and captured three alive. Aslanbek Aslakhanov,
President Vladimir Putin’s adviser on Chechnya, also said a number of the
dead terrorists were Arab mercenaries.
The regional interior ministry claimed that the school seizure had been
planned by Shamil Basayev, Russia’s most- wanted Chechen rebel, and was
led
by the field commander Magomet Yevloyev.
It said there was information that the operation had been financed by Abu
Omar As-Seyf, believed to be al-Qaeda’s representative in Chechnya.
Earlier estimates of the number of hostages were rapidly revised as the
casualty figures rose.
As many as 1,200 people were said to have been inside the school, 70 per
cent of them children, far in excess of the original estimate of 350.
Emergency officials said 704 people were taken to hospital, including 229
children, while a regional security official said 332 children were among
the wounded. Russian television re****ted that three of the gunmen were
captured as they attempted to escape from the school in civilian dress.
Earlier, Russian officials had said that three of the hostage-takers were
blockaded in the basement, trading fire with troops.
The Queen sent a personal message of condolence to the victims of the
Russian school siege catastrophe, speaking of her "profound shock".
Tony Blair condemned the "inhumanity" of the terrorists. The head of the
UN
children’s agency denounced the hostage-taking of youngsters as "a new and
discouraging low".
The terrorists seized the school in North Ossetia on Wednesday, a day
after
a suicide bomb outside a Moscow subway station killed at least nine
people,
and just over a week after two Russian passenger jets crashed almost
simultaneously after what authorities believed were explosions on board
triggered by suicide bombers, possibly Chechen women.
One Beslan hostage said that there were about 30 terrorists, including
women in camouflage.
The hostage said the militants began wiring the school with explosives as
soon as they took control on Wednesday.
The three-day-old crisis reached its climax as emergency workers entered
the school to retrieve the bodies of hostages who had been killed.
Explosions were heard and commandos moved in after about 30 women and
children broke out of the building and fled, some of them bloodied and
screaming.
Terrorists fired on the escapees and the security forces fired back.
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=1042052004
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If you've seen the pictures of a father carrying the lifeless body of his
child on BBC World Service television, it is too much to look at,
especially if you are a parent.
Those who purposely set out to kill children deserve no mercy. Ever. The
death they suffer should not be immediate: it should be preceded by
prolonged administration of pain as long as possible, until they wish for
and demand their own death at least 500 times.
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