|
Russia school standoff ends with 250 dead
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-04 13:17
The three-day hostage siege at a school in southern
Russia ended in chaos and bloodshed Friday, after witnesses said Chechen
militants set off bombs and Russian commandos stormed the building. Hostages
fled in terror, many of them children who were half-naked and covered in blood.
Officials said the toll was at least 250.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin comforts a victim injured in the school siege, whilst
listening to a report of her condition, in a hospital in Beslan in the
North Ossetia region of Russia, Saturday morning Sept. 4, 2004, in this TV
image made from the Russian TV pool. Whilst at a meeting with local
officials during his surprise visit, the Russian President said that 'All
Russia grieves with you', and said targeting children made the hostage
crisis worse than other acts of terrorism. [AP
Photo] |
Early Saturday, 531 people remained hospitalized, including 283 children — 92
of the youngsters in "very grave" condition, health officials said.
Sixty-two hours after the hostage drama began during a celebration marking
the first day of the school year, the Russian government said resistance had
ended. Bomb experts and rescuers looking for victims resumed their search of the
building Saturday after a break overnight.
Russian President Vladimir Putin made a surprise visit to the town early
Saturday and ordered the borders of North Ossetia, the republic where the school
is located, closed while any hostage takers still on the loose are pursued.
"All Russia grieves with you," Putin said during a meeting with local
officials in Beslan in the North Ossetia region, carried on government
television.
He said targeting children made the hostage crisis worse than other acts of
terrorism: "Even alongside the most cruel attacks of the past, this terrorist
act occupies a special place because it was aimed at children."
Valery Andreyev, Russia's Federal Security Service chief in the region, said
10 Arabs were among 27 militants who were killed. The ITAR-Tass news agency,
citing unidentified security sources, reported the hostage-taking was the work
of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who had al-Qaida backing.
Alla Gadieyeva, 24, who was taken captive with her 7-year-old son and mother,
said the militants displayed terrifying brutality from the start. One gunman,
whose pockets were stuffed with grenades, held up the corpse of a man just shot
in front of hundreds of hostages and warned: "If a child utters even a sound,
we'll kill another one."
When children fainted from lack of sleep, food and water, their masked and
camouflaged captors simply sneered, she said, adding that adults implored
children to drink their own urine in the intolerable heat of the gym.
She and other hostages said there was a little water but no food the first
day. The hostages got nothing to eat or drink after that.
Gadieyeva told of three days of unspeakable horror — of children so
frightened they couldn't sleep, of captors coolly threatening to kill off
hostages one by one. The gym where they were held was so cramped there was
hardly room to move.
"We were in complete fear," said Gadieyeva, who spoke to an Associated Press
reporter as she lay collapsed with exhaustion on a stretcher outside a hospital.
"People were praying all the time, and those that didn't know how to pray — we
taught them."
The Interfax news agency quoted unidentified sources in the regional Health
Ministry as saying some 250 people were killed. The figure could not be
confirmed. Reporters said they had seen at least 100 bodies in the school gym.
Under a grove of trees outside the school, white sheets covered dead bodies,
including those of children, on lines of stretchers. Grieving parents and loved
ones knelt beside the dead, some of whom were awaiting identification. Nearby,
anxious crowds gathered around lists of injured posted on the walls of the
hospital buildings.
It was not clear where the tragic end to the siege would leave Putin's tough
policy on Chechnya, which has enjoyed broad domestic support despite the heavy
toll rebel violence has taken in recent years. He has said the Russian fight in
the Caucasus was part of the world's larger war on terrorism.
On his visit to Beslan, Putin warned against letting the attack stir up
tensions in the mult-ethnic North Caucasus region. "One of the goals of the
terrorist was to sow ethnic enmity and blow up the North Caucasus," Putin said.
"Anyone who gives in to such a provocation will be viewed by us as abetting
terrorism."
On the campaign trail in Wisconsin, President Bush said the hostage siege was
"another grim reminder" of the lengths to which terrorists will go. World
governments joined Washington in condemning the militants.
"It is hard to express my revulsion at the inhumanity of terrorists prepared
to put children and their families through such suffering," British Prime
Minister Tony Blair said.
The State Department issued a public announcement warning U.S. citizens
living or traveling in Russia against going to Chechnya and the neighboring
regions because of a heightened risk of terrorist attacks.
"American citizens in Russia should exercise caution and remain vigilant and
aware of these heightened risks when planning use of or using any form of public
transportation. American citizens should also avoid large public gatherings that
lack enhanced security measures," the announcement said.
The Arab presence among the attackers would support Putin's contention that
al-Qaida terrorists were deeply involved in the Chechen conflict, where Muslim
fighters have been battling Russian forces in a brutal war of independence on
and off for more than a decade. ITAR-Tass said Basayev received funding for the
attack from alleged al-Qaida operative Abu Omar as-Saif.
Russian authorities said they stormed the building after the militants set
off explosions and fired shots as emergency teams approached to collect the
bodies of several men killed earlier. They said the hostage-takers had given
them permission to take the corpses away. Witnesses quoted by Russian media said
the militants opened fire on fleeing hostages and then began to escape
themselves.
A police explosives expert told NTV television that the commandos stormed the
building after bombs wired to basketball hoops exploded in the gymnasium, where
many of the children were being held. A captive who escaped told NTV that a
suicide bomber blew herself up in the gym.
Channel One TV reported three of the attackers were arrested after trying to
escape in civilian dress. Four militants were believed to have escaped. A member
of an elite security unit died saving two young girls, ITAR-Tass reported.
The standoff was declared at an end hours after commandos began their midday
assault, when a final large explosion issued from the school, apparently ending
a gunfight between three militants trapped in the school basement and security
forces trying to free children being used as human shields. Sporadic shooting
continued hours later.
A hostage who escaped told the AP that the militants numbered 28, including
women wearing camouflage uniforms. The hostage, who identified himself only as
Teimuraz, said the militants began wiring the school with explosives as soon as
they took control. He, too, said they had placed bombs on both basketball hoops
in the gym.
The bomb expert said the gym had been rigged with explosives packed in
plastic bottles strung up around the room on a cord and stuffed with metal
objects.
The militants, some with explosives strapped to their bodies, stormed the
school in Beslan on Wednesday morning and kept the hundreds of children along
with parents in the sweltering gymnasium, refusing to allow deliveries of food
and water.
"They didn't let me go to the toilet for three days, not once. They never let
me drink or go to the toilet," Teimuraz said.
Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician involved in negotiations with the militants
before they were stormed, called them "very cruel people ... a ruthless enemy."
"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," Roshal said.
Putin's adviser on Chechnya, Aslanbek Aslakhanov, said security forces had
not planned to storm the building, but were prompted to move by the first
explosions about 1 p.m. Friday. Officials had pledged not to use force.
Russian forces had held back, perhaps remembering the deadly outcome two
years ago when security troops pumped nerve gas into a Moscow theater before
storming in to free about 800 hostages being held by Chechen terrorists. The
nerve gas debilitated the captors but also was the cause of most of the 129
hostage deaths.
As the captives escaped the school, residents and troops ran through the
streets, and the wounded were carried off on stretchers. An AP reporter saw
ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood. Four armed men in
civilian clothes ran by, shouting, "A militant ran this way."
Streets around the school were a dizzying tableau of chaos as soldiers and
men in civilian clothes carried children — some naked, some clad only in
underpants, some covered in blood, some bandaged. Women, newly freed from the
school, fainted.
The children drank eagerly from bottles of water given to them once they
reached safety. Many of the children had removed their clothing because of the
stifling heat in the gymnasium.
"I am helping you," a man dressed in camouflage told a crying girl. Women
gathered around, trying to soothe her, saying "It's all right. It's all right."
| |
 |
|
|
|
|
Today's
Top News |
|
|
|
Top World
News |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
