Russians Storm School; 150 May Be Dead
By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer
BESLAN, Russia -
Commandos stormed a school Friday in
southern Russia and battled separatist rebels holding 1,200 hostages,
as crying children, some naked and covered in blood, fled through
explosions and gunfire. An official said the death toll could be
significantly higher than 150.
Hours after the midday assault, three of
the separatist rebels were reportedly still blockaded in a school
basement, trading fire with security forces. A Federal Security Service
official said militants were still holding hostages — children among
them.
The school was largely secured late
Friday afternoon, but a large explosion erupted from inside toward
nightfall, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. A member of an elite
security unit died saving two young girls, the agency reported.
Valery Andreyev, the top Federal Security
Service official in the region, said 20 militants were killed,
including 10 Arabs. The Arab presence among the attackers would support
President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites)'s
contention that al-Qaida terrorists were involved in the Chechen
conflict, where Muslim fighters have been fighting Russian forces in a
brutal a war of independence for most of the past decade.
A hostage who escaped told Associated
Press Television News 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.
The chaotic climax to the hostage
standoff began when explosions collapsed part of the school roof and
gunfire erupted from inside the building where the militants, some with
explosives strapped to their bodies, stormed the school Wednesday
morning.
The militants — demanding independence for nearby Chechnya (news - web sites) — kept the hostages, mostly women and children, in the sweltering gymnasium, refusing to let in food or 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, the escaped hostage told APTN.
After the hostage-takers fled, more than
100 bodies were found in the gymnasium, some apparently killed when
part of the school's roof collapsed in the explosion that prompted the
Russian security forces to move in.
A Putin aide said the total death toll
could be significantly more than 150 people. An estimated 520 people
were wounded, health officials said. The regional health minister
earlier reported that at least 218 children were wounded.
Aslanbek Aslakhanov, Putin's top aide on
Chechnya, said security forces did not plan to storm the building, but
were prompted to move when the hostage-takers set off explosions early
Friday afternoon. Witnesses said the militants opened fire on fleeing
hostages and then began to escape themselves.
Gunfire rang out for hours as security
forces chased hostage-takers, who split into small groups as they fled.
Interfax and the ITAR-Tass news agency reported the three militants
holed up in the basement may include the head of the group. Another
group took refuge in a nearby house where tanks moved in.
Huge columns of smoke rose from the
school. Windows were shattered, part of roof was gone and another part
was charred. Commandos, residents and journalists scurried around the
building and soldiers climbed inside through a lower floor window, all
the glass missing.
People ran through the streets, and the
wounded were carried off on stretchers. An Associated Press reporter
saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood. Four armed
men in civilian clothes ran by, shouting, "A militant ran this way."
Soldiers and men in civilian clothes
carried children — some naked, some clad only in underpants, some
covered in blood — to a temporary hospital set up behind an armored
personnel carrier. One child had a bandage on her head, others had
bandaged limbs. Some 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
were naked or only partly clothed 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."
A cameraman for the British network ITN
reported seeing around 100 bodies in the gym. The correspondent for
Russia's Interfax news agency reported that there were dozens of bodies
in the school, including about 100 in the gym, and that some were
killed when the building's roof collapsed from an explosion before the
main assault began.
Sixty of the bodies in the gymnasium have
been identified, said Andreyev, the chief of the Federal Security
Service in North Ossetia said.
A nurse spread clean sheets on stretchers, and told AP that Russian officials expected "very many" wounded.
The White House branded the hostage-taking
"barbaric" and "despicable" and said responsibility for dozens of lost
lives rests with the terrorists. "The United States stands side-by-side
with Russia in our global fight against terrorism," spokesman Scott
McClellan said.
President Bush (news - web sites)
was briefed on developments in Russia Friday morning before a
re-election rally in Pennsylvania. He did not talk about the Russian
terrorism during his speech.
The chaos erupted on the third day of the
hostage standoff in Beslan, a town of 30,000 in North Ossetia, a
republic near the wartorn region of Chechnya. North Ossetia's
president, Alexander Dzasokhov, said Friday the militants had demanded
independence for Chechnya — the first official word connecting the
hostage-taking to the conflict that has fueled Russia's worst terror
attacks.
The violence began after militants had
agreed to let Russia retrieve the bodies of people killed early in the
raid. Explosions went off as the emergency personnel went to get the
bodies at around 1 p.m., collapsing part of the roof of the building,
and hostages took the noise as a signal to flee, officials said.
Militants opened fire on fleeing hostages
and security forces returned fire. Once the hostage-takers sought to
escape, Russian officials apparently made the decision to storm the
building.
The militants had reportedly threatened to
blow up the building if authorities tried to storm it, but all
indications suggested the explosions began before the assault. Russian
officials repeatedly said they were not planning to invade and had
earlier won the release of 26 hostages through negotiations.
The hostage-takers' identities were murky.
Lev Dzugayev, a North Ossetian official, said the attackers might be
from Chechnya or Ingushetia. Law enforcement sources in North Ossetia
and Ingushetia, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attackers
were believed to include Chechens, Ingush, Russians and a North
Ossetian suspected of participating in the Ingushetia violence.
Insurgents fought an earlier war for
Chechen independence, a conflict that ended in stalemate. In the years
since, the rebels and their sympathizers have increasingly taken to
assaults and attacks outside the tiny republic.
Negotiators said the hostage-takers had repeatedly refused offers of food and water throughout the standoff.
"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."
The school seizure came a day after a
suspected Chechen suicide bomber blew herself up outside a Moscow
subway station, killing nine people, and just over a week after 90
people died in two plane crashes that are suspected to have been blown
up by bombers also linked to Chechnya.
In a 2002 theater raid in Moscow, Chechen
rebels took about 800 hostages during a performance, a standoff that
ended after a knockout gas was pumped into the building, debilitating
the captors but causing almost all of the 129 hostage deaths.
On Thursday, the militants had freed about 26 hostages, all women and children.
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