Gunmen take 200+ student hostages

[pogingwapo 0]

Quote[/b] ]A group of about 30 gunmen has seized a school in North Ossetia with up to 400 children, Russia’s internal republic bordering war-torn Chechnya and the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.

The RIA-Novosti news agency reported the news Wednesday morning, citing North Ossetia’s Emergencies Minister Boris Dzgoyev.

A group of rebels stormed into the school building in the town of Beslan at around 0800 on Wednesday morning shortly after a ceremony to mark the start of the new school year in Russia.

The gunmen ordered the children and staff into the school’s gymnasium. RIA Novosti writes that there are fatalities among the teachers. Some of the children have contacted parents via their mobile telephones.

Interfax news agency quoted local police as saying women and men wearing belts of explosives were among the attackers. So far they have not put forward any demands and their motives remain unclear. Local law enforcers have arrived at the scene, Dzgoyev said. They will try to establish contact with the rebels.

The Interfax news agency reports that a gun battle has broken out with police near the school building. The agency said that gunmen may also have attacked a second school in the region.

Reuters quoted Vladimir Putin’s envoy in the region, Vladimir Yakovlev, as saying that the police were being called to the scene. It is not immediately clear how many schoolchildren and parents have been taken, the official said.

“There is a shootout in the area,†the envoy, Vladimir Yakovlev said.

Itar-Tass news agency gave the number of children seized in the school as about 200.

SOURCE

[MrZig 0]

Oh my god.. that's so damned sad.. We live in a pretty messed up world eh

I give condolences to those who lost loved ones and friends

Hopefully they can resolve this without any more fatalaties.. I hope

[The Real Armstrong 0]

All I can say is:

I really hope they sort it out without any deaths. How inhuman can you be? Attack defenseless kids? Shesh.

When it's over the media's gonna start blaiming the computer games (OK, maybe not the right time to say that but I promise, they will, but of course the victims now are more important) .

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]OK, maybe not the right time to say that but I promise, they will, but of course the victims now are more important

Huh ? This is chechen terror, not some schoolkids going wild...did you actually read the articel ?

[ozanzac 0]

If Chechens are responsible for this; taking school kids hostages and blowing up airliners has pushed the Chechens across the vague line from freedom fighter to terrorist in my book. I don’t think this is a good decision and it’s lost any sympathy I had for the Chechen cause.

I fear the end of this particular situation will not be resolved peacefully at all.  

[SpecOp9 0]

This is a sad story...I hope everything turns out good

[Norris 0]

This is a sad story...I hope everything turns out good

If anyone can fix it the spetsgruppa A can.

[joltan 0]

BTW: N24 (a german satellite news service) will have a special report on them in about half an hour (13:30 CEST).

[theavonlady 2]

Reports are now saying there are about 400 hostages, 50 children escaped and some dead bodies can be seen outside, apparently killed when the terrorists entered.

I would guess that the Russians will have to employ some chemical agent attack, like they did in the theater in Moscow earlier this year.

Russian soldiers rescue an unidentified child in North Ossetia

Wednesday morning Sept. 1, 2004. More than a dozen

attackers carrying guns and wrapped in suicide-bomb belts

seized a school in the Russian region of North Ossetia

Wednesday morning and were holding hundreds of hostages,

including some 200 children, news reports said. (AP Photo)

[raedor 8]

I would guess that the Russians will have to employ some chemical agent attack, like they did in the theater in Moscow earlier this year.

that was in 2002 afaik.

sure that's sad.

nobody ask for what russian soldiers are doing in chechnya. maybe they are not killing kids... but that's all you can count for these soldiers...

[SpecOp9 0]

You know, it is September...could these guys possibly be Al Qaeda?

BTW, the report said there are children. What the hell are children doing with cellular phones of that age?

[DarkLight 0]

You know, it is September...could these guys possibly be Al Qaeda?

BTW, the report said there are children.  What the hell are children doing with cellular phones of that age?

Looks like you don't know what kids these days are like.

In my school i see 12 year old kids that have some of the newest and most expensive mobiles.

I don't know where the little fuckers get the money from...

Oh well... only the really annoying kids have them... or the spoiled brats... or the junior drugsdealers...

Kids are strange these days... it's not like any of them actually need to have such a mobile... but course playing SNake while waiting for the bus is fun...

[SpecOp9 0]

You know, it is September...could these guys possibly be Al Qaeda?

BTW, the report said there are children.  What the hell are children doing with cellular phones of that age?

Looks like you don't know what kids these days are like.

In my school i see 12 year old kids that have some of the newest and most expensive mobiles.

I don't know where the little fuckers get the money from...

Oh well... only the really annoying kids have them... or the spoiled brats... or the junior drugsdealers...

Kids are strange these days... it's not like any of them actually need to have such a mobile... but course playing SNake while waiting for the bus is fun...

Spoiled little brats..lol

[Winters 1]

First i heard about the suicide bomber last night and now this in the morning. Taking kids hostage is not the act of freedom fighters just the same as bombing them is not the act of liberators.

[Ironsight 1]

You know, it is September...could these guys possibly be Al Qaeda?

No, when autumn and winter come chechen rebels can't fight in the forests anymore, because the leaves are falling of the trees, and you don't have camo anymore.

So they move their activities to the cities.

Heard this in of a journalist who interviewed some major chechen rebels.

[kerosene 0]

Chechen conflict didnt start out like this, and the media should look at whats happened and is happening in Chechnya. I think the way Russian forces have behaved in chechnya, and sometimes how the Russian judicail system/government has reacted has made Chechnyans more militant.

Its the kind of situation thats helpful for islamic militants cause they can capitalise on whats happened and use it for their own ends.

[SpecOp9 0]

I just don't see why Chechnya decides to say they're independant out of nowhere.

What was wrong with what they already had?

[kerosene 0]

Do they resent the Russians for deporting all those Chechens during WW2?

I just found this on Encyclopedia.com:

Recognized as a distinct people since the 17th cent., the Chechens were the most active opponents of Russia's conquest (1818-1917) of the Caucasus. They fought bitterly during an unsuccessful 1850s rebellion led by Imam Shamyl. The Bolsheviks seized the region in 1918 but were dislodged in 1919 by counterrevolutionary forces under Gen. A. I. Denikin .

In 1991, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Chechen-dominated parliament of the republic declared independence as the Republic of Ichkeria, soon better known as Chechnya. In June, 1992, Russia granted Ingush inhabitants their own republic (Ingushetia) in the western fifth of the territory.

Tensions between the Russian government and that of Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev escalated into warfare in late 1994, as Russian troops arrived to crush the separatist movement. Grozny was devastated in the fighting, and tens of thousands died. Russian forces regained control of many areas in 1995, but separatist guerrillas controlled much of the mountainous south and committed spectacular terrorist actions in other parts of Russia. Fighting continued through 1996, when Dudayev was killed and succeeded by Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The Russians withdrew, essentially admitting defeat, following a cease-fire that left Chechnya with de facto autonomy.

Aslan Maskhadov, chief of staff of the Chechen forces, was elected president early in 1997 but appeared to have little control over the republic. In 1999, Islamic law was established. Terrorism, including a series of bombings in Moscow, erupted again, and after Islamic militants invaded neighboring Dagestan from Chechnya, Russian forces bombed and invaded Chechnya, capturing Grozny and forcing the rebels into mountain strongholds. The rebels have continued to mount guerrilla attacks on Russian forces, as well as terror attacks in Moscow and other Russian cities outside Chechnya. Both sides have been accused of brutality and terrorizing noncombatants. In Mar., 2003, voters approved a new constitution for Chechnya, and in October Akhmad Kadyrov was elected president, but the election was generally regarded as neither free nor fair. Both the constitution and the president were backed by Russian government.

-----

I think Dudyav was the ex-airforce colonel he wasnt an islamic militant i dont think.

[desantnik 0]

The point is that no matter how much someone has mistreated or hurt you, you are no better than them if you resort to the same tactics...

I really had sympathy for the Chechen cause and I am a Russian, but this just steps over the line.I think that these Chechen "freedom fighters" just condemned their own people in the eyes of the world. This is pure fucking terrorism.

I hope that the Russian troops are better prepared for this seige after hoping some lessons from previous situations had been learned.

Also you cant blame the average Russian conscript for the crimes, it was not his choice to come their, he doesnt want to fight, and if people keep saying all Russians are rapists, muggers, and drug crazed killing machines than I will keep saying that all Chechens are wahhabist terrorist jihadist...

This is simply not true, so try to have a sympathy for both sides.

By the way, the way the Chechens are acting now, and looking at how many foriegn ( freedom fighters) are currently in Chechnya, I think that it would be very very stupid to grant Chechnya its independence right now... its just way too unstable, it has no economic infrastructure, it has marauding bands of young angry heavily armed fighters, it has an increasing narcotics trade, and there is no way that any Chechen president, Russian backed or otherwise can control all the groups.. This has been proven in the years of 1996-1998 when militants launched an invasion in Russian Dagestan hoping to spill over the war into Russias neighboring regions. The truth is that most of the republics around chechnya, dont want independence and want to continue to be part of Russia. I ll have some quotes later on.

It has been proven more recently that the Chechens are beginning to rely more and more on terrorism in order to expose their plight to the world... but how does this make them any better than their invaders? It is f**king sick of what their doing.

I respect the average Chechen, but Chechnya as a whole is just too unfit to become independent, because if it does, we have seen that the noble Chechen field commanders of the first war turn into warlords between the fighting, and that is precisely what is going to happen again.

Also, the school was siezed in Northern Ossetia, this is where my cousin was born and this really hits home, I think the whole point is to destabilize the region even farther because this region wanted independence from Georgie and annexation into Russia, I can easily see why, I think 90% of people living there are Russians.

The point is --- whatever respect the international community had to the Chechen cause ---- has been vaporised. This is pure terrorism and not martydom ---- the foreign fighters ( arabs and other mujahadeen in Chechnya ( wahhabites) probably got some dumb impressional young guy like movsar basayev to sacrifice himself ) This is just crazy.... I know the Chechens have a horrible history with Russia, and a Georgian named Stalin deported the entire country to Kazakstan, but this shows that they are no better than we are.

[cobra@pulse 0]

you got to be one sick son of a b**ch to take kids hostage

If any "freedom fighters" (my ass) are left alive after this they should be shot!!

Looks like I'm angry!

[EiZei 0]

This is a sad story...I hope everything turns out good

If anyone can fix it the spetsgruppa A can.

http://students.engr.scu.edu/~jabrah....ogo.jpg

At least I saw some guys with OMON tags on their backs running around with AK-74SUs on BBC.

[ebns72 0]

Animals. Taking kids hostage. They deserve to be shot. If they kill any of them, then in stead they deserve a long, slow, painful death.

[theavonlady 2]

Animals. Taking kids hostage. They deserve to be shot. If they kill any of them, then in stead they deserve a long, slow, painful death.

Just in case you didn't see this in the latest reports:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tm....1132655

Quote[/b] ]North Ossetia's interior minister, Kazbek Dzantiev, said the hostage-takers had threatened to kill 50 children for every abductor killed, news reports said.

"For every destroyed rebel, they will kill 50 children, and 20 children for every injured rebel," he was quoted as saying by news agencies and television.

[gandalf the white 0]

This is a sad story...I hope everything turns out good

If anyone can fix it the spetsgruppa A can.

http://students.engr.scu.edu/~jabrah....ogo.jpg

At least I saw some guys with OMON tags on their backs running around with AK-74SUs on BBC.

yes, snipers monitor every inch of the building and APC's are also in the area , there are OMON troops (saw one signalling to a sniper with his back to the camera) so that's atleast the correct group... now let's hope for the best !

[bn880 5]

That's terrible, and this whole conflict sucks. I wish people (on both sides) could realize that this just holds back economic progress and personal security, which really effects every person in the region.

You can't build an orderly nation without content citizens, that's basically where it all starts.

As far as I know the Russians sent very young and inexperienced fighters to Chechnya, which could explain the prolonged conflict and the really bad reputation they got. The more experienced and mature people you send in the more respect they are likely to gain from the people, through good conduct.....