Sustained gunfire reported at School

Stuart Mackey · Post by **Stuart Mackey** » 2004-09-03 05:27am

There are reports of sustained gunfire at the Russian school where up to 1500 are reported as hostage to terrorists. There are casualties.

Stuart Mackey · Post by **Stuart Mackey** » 2004-09-03 05:37am

I havent found anything on the net yet, but its on CNN at the moment.

Stofsk · Post by **Stofsk** » 2004-09-03 05:41am

Stuart Mackey wrote:I havent found anything on the net yet, but its on CNN at the moment.

I just saw a newsbreak report down here on it. Fuck, 1'500 hostages. Apparently these are Chechnyan terrorists, according to our news services - I thought they were North Ossetian?

Faram · Post by **Faram** » 2004-09-03 05:42am

According to this site:

Aftonbladet.se

There is a rescue operation in progress now.

Stuart Mackey · Post by **Stuart Mackey** » 2004-09-03 05:47am

Faram wrote:According to this site:

Aftonbladet.se

There is a rescue operation in progress now.

Well it seems to be a long op..apparently the exact number of the enemy are unknown. Children have been wounded, possibly quite badly, and the roof may hav collapse.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-09-03 06:08am

Apparently the hostage-takers allowed ambulances to approach to recover the dead bodies in the courtyard from the initial attack.

And then for some reason several mines were detonated under them.

Following that, explosives were detonated which collapsed part of the roof.

And the hostage-takers attempted to escape surrounded by children as human shields.

A gun-battle that lasted for an hour insued. And apparently none escaped.

Keevan_Colton · Post by **Keevan_Colton** » 2004-09-03 06:08am

The place has been stormed. Russian forces are now stating they have full control of the school.

Post by **Broomstick** » 2004-09-03 06:13am

Well, I figured something had to break soon - they've been refusing food and water for three days. Even for a couple hundred (as the original estimates had it) the situation would be getting intolerable, with a thousand or more...

I can't imagine they have any toilet paper left. If they were even letting people go to the toilet. Add in babies and young children with bladders prone to let go under extreme stress (hell, there are a significant number of adults in that category) and the stench must be nasty in that building.

Anyhow - three days with no food or water coming in, well, folks would start getting ill and the situation would deteriorate.

Can't help but think that part of the idea was to attract lots of attention then have a blood bath regardless of what the authorities did or didn't do.

You know, I normally adhere to the ethic that self-defense is the only justification for taking human life, but fuckwads like these make me wish I was pro-death penalty. Then again, exterminating rabid dogs IS self-defense.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-09-03 06:16am

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2004-09-03 06:38am

Fox is reporting some of the terriorsts escaped and that the "explosions" multiple were from within the building, not from without then the ambulances got hit from within the building, Some of the hostages bolted at that point and the terrirosts open up on them and then all HELL broke loose with the Russia opening as well

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-09-03 06:39am

http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2004/09/03/002.html

BESLAN, North Ossetia -- When the armed attackers seized School No. 1, they separated the men from the women and children and marched them up to the second floor.

The men, most of them teachers, were lined up against the wall.

This is when Yury Ailarov, a father who had accompanied his daughter to school on Wednesday morning with his wife, decided not to stick around.

He jumped out of the second-floor window, according to his friend Pyotr Sidarov, who said he visited Ailarov in the hospital where he was being treated for two broken arms and a concussion.

Ailarov started crawling toward the road. The hostage-takers, apparently not wanting to shoot at him from the windows because it would expose them to sniper fire, tossed grenades out the window at him. Seeing what was happening, troops outside the school threw smoke grenades to provide cover and pulled him to safety, Sidarov told a reporter Thursday.

Ailarov feared that the attackers were planning to kill all of the men, according to his friend.

Troops stationed closest to the school said another man who escaped told them that 12 to 13 men were killed, which jibes roughly with information from the command center that 12 people were killed inside the school.

The troops said seven bodies, of men and women, were dumped out of a second-floor window. The bodies were not visible from behind the cordon.

The bodies of two men who were killed during the initial siege were seen lying on the road, still too close to the school to be safely retrieved. One of the men had leaped out of his car without turning off the engine, and it continued to run the rest of the morning and afternoon. His body lay nearby, propped up against a lamppost.

Late Wednesday night, one of the troops called his commanding officer on the radio with a grim request.

"Can we shoot the dogs? They are chewing on the bodies," said the man, who gave only his first name, Oleg. The officer turned down the request, saying that any shooting could alarm the hostage-takers, and they did not want to risk setting off a firefight or put the hostages' lives in danger. The attackers have threatened to kill 50 children for every one of their own killed.

There was sporadic shooting throughout the day Wednesday and Thursday, but all of it seemed to come from inside the school; none of the troops or police surrounding the building was seen firing a weapon.

The armed men posted around the perimeter of the school, numbering about 200, were wearing a mixture of uniforms, or none at all. Some came from the Interior Troops, others from the OMON special police force and even the traffic police. About one in 10 were young Ossetian men with automatic rifles who wore civilian clothes and white armbands to show they were on the side of the troops. They refused to say which unit they were with, if any. Six armored personnel carriers were on a street about a block away.

Hundreds of relatives and friends of the hostages have camped out at the Dom Kultury, or cultural center, located two blocks from the school. The grass outside has been so badly trampled that the ground has turned to mud.

Although they live nearby, many have spent the night at the culture center, which is where all official information has been given out. They have been waiting for every bit of news and wanted to be there if their loved ones were released. A television in the auditorium was tuned to the news.

During the day Thursday, women with eyes swollen from crying sat outside on the curb with their heads between their knees.

Each time an official appeared, crowds of relatives and friends circled around to hear the latest news.

Soslan Bigayev, 13, was one of the lucky students who was able to flee as the school was being seized.

He went to school Wednesday morning, the first day of the new school year, but while his eighth-grade classmates were lining up in the courtyard for the start of the festivities, Bigayev said he decided to go inside to check out the renovations that were done over the summer.

When he came out, he walked across the courtyard to get a drink from a water fountain.

"I thank God that I got thirsty. It saved my life," he told a reporter who found him at home Thursday.

While he was drinking from the fountain, the attackers drove into the courtyard.

"Men jumped out of the van," Bigayev said. "One of them had a long ginger beard, thick bushy eyebrows and a red and green skull cap. He fired an automatic rifle into the air. I knew immediately that they were terrorists because of all the other attacks that I've seen on TV over the past few days."

He ran away with two of his classmates, but the others were among those taken hostage.

Goddamned SCUM, can't even keep their own dogs under control.

Lord of the Farce · Post by **Lord of the Farce** » 2004-09-03 07:00am

MKSheppard wrote:Late Wednesday night, one of the troops called his commanding officer on the radio with a grim request.

"Can we shoot the dogs? They are chewing on the bodies," said the man, who gave only his first name, Oleg.

Goddamned SCUM, can't even keep their own dogs under control.[/quote]
Correct me if I'm wrong (particularly if I've misinterpreted what you are saying), but since the article doesn't seem to specify who these dogs belonged to, they could have just been strays who wandered into the mess.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-09-03 07:25am

Lord of the Farce wrote: Correct me if I'm wrong (particularly if I've misinterpreted what you are saying), but since the article doesn't seem to specify who these dogs belonged to, they could have just been strays who wandered into the mess.

Apparently the terrorists brought two of their own dogs with them, apparently
as a mobile canary unit against the IVan's pumping gas in

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-09-03 07:33am

Radio freedom reporting 150+ dead.

Also, apparently the reason for the number being raised to over 1,000 - there were not 354 people inside as reported yesterday, but 354 families.

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2004-09-03 08:15am

According to the TV, a group of terrorists held up in a house after their initial run from the school. Running gun fight there for a while, now all is quiet.

Chris OFarrell · Post by **Chris OFarrell** » 2004-09-03 09:23am

Fucking God damned sons of bitches

If they really are Chechens, Putin needs to give THEM the pigskin treatment as well.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2004-09-03 09:53am

Apparently the official figure is 4 dead. People at the scene are saying 100+.

Post by **Edi** » 2004-09-03 10:47am

According to BBC, Interfax is backing that 100+ figure. Their numbers say 100 dead children, no idea what the real figures are.

Edi

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2004-09-03 11:09am

I hate to be a stick-in-the-mud but this was never going to end any other way ... you don't strap explosives around your waist, refuse food or water, take people hostage and then not blow yourself and your hostages up.

Damn tragedy.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-09-03 11:13am

Edi wrote:According to BBC, Interfax is backing that 100+ figure. Their numbers say 100 dead children, no idea what the real figures are.

Edi

Children. MY GOD. 100 of them and these fuckers didn't even bat an eye. Makes you wonder how we would handle a similar situation (God forbid) I mean, could it have ended any other way when you have loons like this involved that are looking for a body count.

Kazuaki Shimazaki · Post by **Kazuaki Shimazaki** » 2004-09-03 11:20am

Somehow, it is things like this that make me unable to feel any sympathy for Chechens. Even the Palestinian stereotype sucide car bomb attack looks higher than this.

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2004-09-03 11:25am

Stravo wrote:Makes you wonder how we would handle a similar situation (God forbid)

I would NOT want to be a Chechen right now. See, Russians love children. A lot. And this was the 1st day of School. Which is a special semi holiday in Russia. Where the children dress up for the occasion and parents go to
the schools with their kids.

Say hello to the Shell Crater Formerly Known As Chechenya

Post by **Edi** » 2004-09-03 11:29am

Stravo wrote:
Edi wrote:According to BBC, Interfax is backing that 100+ figure. Their numbers say 100 dead children, no idea what the real figures are.

Edi
Children. MY GOD. 100 of them and these fuckers didn't even bat an eye. Makes you wonder how we would handle a similar situation (God forbid) I mean, could it have ended any other way when you have loons like this involved that are looking for a body count.

Looks like I was a bit hasty and went on only partials I heard. The official count is 100 bodies (not specified whether children or adult) in the gym alone, over 400 wounded, a great number of them children. There were several explosions inside the building, part of the roof collapsed and set the building on fire. No idea how many died in the blasts and the fire. According to BBC, it is not clear what caused the situation to blow up, but the Russian authorities are saying that the storming of the school was not planned but that they had to act when the shit started going down. The whole building had been rigged with explosives.

Some of the terrorists escaped and have holed up in another building in the city. It is unknown how many prisoners they have with them, but they made their break during the confusion and used child hostages for cover.

Kazuaki Shimazaki wrote:Somehow, it is things like this that make me unable to feel any sympathy for Chechens. Even the Palestinian stereotype suicide car bomb attack looks higher than this.

I'm not blaming you for that attitude. I happen to agree with the particulars of this case. And while we've been talking about Chechens, the terrorists are not exclusively Chechens but actually from all over the North Caucasus region and there are even Russians among them. These are radical Islamists or a group influenced by them.

Edi

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-09-03 11:32am

So if you're Putin, what do you do? Carpet-bomb Chechnya in retaliation? Blow up mosques? Outlaw Islam? Will that help prevent more of this kind of behaviour in the future?

Crown · Post by **Crown** » 2004-09-03 11:35am

Darth Wong wrote:So if you're Putin, what do you do? Carpet-bomb Chechnya in retaliation? Blow up mosques? Outlaw Islam? Will that help prevent more of this kind of behaviour in the future?

Wasn't he elected on a platform of 'winning the war in Chechenya' in the first place