Endri
Moderator
Regjistruar: 03/01/2003
Vendbanimi: Today
Mesazhe: 1498
|
(English)
Over 100 killed as Russian forces storm hostage school
BESLAN, Russia (AP) - Russia's hostage crisis came to a chaotic climax Friday, erupting into explosions, gunfire and screams of fleeing children as commandos stormed the school where militants strapped with bombs had held hundreds of captives for a third day. More than 100 people were dead, and some hostages were still being held, officials said.
Some 100 bodies lay on the floor of the school gymnasium where the hostages had been held since Wednesday. Some apparently were killed when the roof collapsed, reports said. Officials said at least 520 people were hospitalized, many of them children.
Russian forces killed five of the hostage-takers, but 13 others escaped, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported. Troops backed by tanks were pursuing the militants, some of whom were said to be holed up in a house in the area as others attempted to blend in with the former hostages and crowd of townspeople in Beslan, ITAR-Tass said.
Interfax and ITAR-Tass later reported that three militants were blockaded in the school basement, possibly including the chief hostage-takers, and were continuing to fire weapons. The reports came after the agency said more than 10 militants were killed in gunfights in Beslan.
Police said the hostage-takers had split into three groups during the storming, which appears to have been unplanned. Some of them remained in the school, others apparently sought to escape southward in the town and others tried to mix in with the hostages, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russian authorities claimed to have control of the school, but sporadic gunfire continued to ring out in the area hours after the commandos' raid.
Regional president Alexander Dzasokhov said the hostage-takers had demanded that Russian troops leave Chechnya - the first clear indication of their demands and of a direct link between Wednesday's attack in the region of North Ossetia and the ongoing war in the neighbouring region.
In the chaotic scene around the school, hundreds of people ran through the streets, columns of smoke soared overhead and the cries of the wounded and the children - many of them naked - filled the air. An Associated Press reporter saw ambulances speeding by, the windows streaked with blood.
Commandos, residents and journalists scurried around the burning brick school. Some camouflage-clad soldiers climbed inside through a lower floor window, all the glass missing. The militants had broken most of the windows earlier in what might have been an effort to prevent authorities from using a knockout gas against them.
Part of the building's roof had collapsed - apparently killing many of the hostages and leaving a jagged opening to the sky, Interfax said.
Sixty of the bodies in the gymnasium have been identified, the chief of the regional Federal Security Service said.
North Ossetia Health Minister Alexander Soplevenko said that at least 409 people were wounded, including 219 children. A hospital chief said 69 children were admitted to one hospital, five in grave condition.
Two emergency services workers were killed and three others wounded during the chaos, Interfax reported.
At a hospital about 1.5 kilometres from the school, anguished crowds mobbed ambulances to see who was inside.
Under an adjacent grove of pine and spruce trees, some two dozen children lay on bloodied stretchers. Parents and relatives hugged and kissed them, giving them water. One weeping men led away a young boy muddied, bleeding and wearing only underpants.
The smell of gunpowder lingered heavily in the air around the school.
A nurse spreading sheets on stretchers told The Associated Press that Russian officials expected "very many" wounded.
It was not immediately clear what led to the events Friday. Early reports suggested the militants had agreed to let Russia retrieve the bodies of 10 to 20 hostages who had been killed. A local legislator, Azamat Kadykov, had told the hostages' relatives that 20 adult men had been executed.
Emergency personnel went to get the bodies, and the militants began setting off bombs and opening fire on people around the school, ITAR-Tass said. Some 30 women and children broke out of the building, some bloodied and screaming, and commandos then launched the assault.
Interfax said militants fired at children who ran from the building, and unconfirmed reports said some of the hostage-takers, possibly including women bearing suicide belts, may have taken hostages with them.
The top Federal Security Service official in North Ossetia, Valery Andreyev, said there were two large explosions and that people started running. Militants fired at the fleeing hostages, and security forces opened covering fire - along with civilian residents of the town who had armed themselves.
Women escaping the building were seen fainting and others, some covered in blood, were carried away on stretchers. Many children were only partly clothed because of the stifling heat in the gym where they had been held since the militants took the building some 52 hours earlier.
Interfax said the school's roof had collapsed - possibly from the explosives some militants had strapped to their bodies. The militants had reportedly threatened to blow up the building if authorities tried to storm.
The militants had freed about 26 women and children on Thursday, and Russian officials and others had been in on-and-off negotiations with the hostage-takers, but with few signs of progress toward a resolution.
There were conflicting reports of the number of hostages, with official saying about 350 and people among a small group freed on Wednesday saying there were about 1,500.
President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that everything possible would be done to end the "horrible" crisis and save the lives of the children and other hostages - a task he stressed was all-important, indicating are would be taken to avoid casualties in efforts to free them.
Two major hostage-taking raids by Chechen rebels outside the war-torn region in the past decade prompted forceful Russian rescue operations that led to many deaths. The seizure of a Moscow theatre in 2002 ended after a knockout gas was pumped into the building, debilitating the captors but causing almost all of the 129 hostage deaths.
The hostage-takers at the theater had called for Russia to withdraw it troops from Chechnya, where tens of thousands of federal forces have been fighting against rebels for nearly five years in the second of two wars in the mostly Muslim region in a decade.
-
Key events in seizure of a school in the town of Beslan in southern Russia. Some times are approximate.
Wednesday, Sept. 1
-Shortly after 9 a.m.: School seized by unknown gunmen, shots exchanged with police. Reports of death toll range from two to eight. More than a dozen wounded.
-10:50 a.m.: Russian media report attackers wearing suicide-bomb belts.
-Noon: More gunfire, explosions reported.
-4:40 p.m.: Russian news agencies report 15 children released. However, authorities say at least 12 children and one adult escaped after hiding in boiler room.
-7:30 p.m.: Security official says authorities have established contact with hostage takers.
Thursday, Sept. 2
-10:15 a.m.: Kremlin announces President Vladimir Putin has cancelled planned trip to Turkey, which would be first state visit by Russian leader for bilateral talks since Soviet collapse.
-2 p.m.: Putin, in first comments on the attack, calls it "horrible" and says, "Our main task is, of course, to save the lives and health of those who became hostages. All actions of our forces working on the hostages' release will be devoted and be subject to this task exclusively."
-Afternoon: Ruslan Aushev, Afghan war hero and former president of neighbouring Ingushetia region, holds talks with hostage-taker in school gym. Aushev later credited with securing hostage releases.
-4:45 p.m.: First hostages released, women and small children taken to safety. Officials say a total of 26 released. Media report one woman returns to school to remain with still-captive children.
Friday, Sept. 3
-After 1 a.m.: Two loud bangs heard. Authorities call it unprovoked firing by hostage-takers. One policeman reported injured.
-After 8 p.m.: Officials say the number of hostages, previously thought to be around 350, could be more than 1,000.
-After 9 p.m.: Local legislator says 20 male hostages were executed inside school. Negotiations with the hostage-takers continues, after overnight suspension, with efforts to persuade militants to allow a delivery of water, food and medicine for the captives.
-Shortly after 1 p.m.: Emergencies Ministry workers approach school with agreement of militants to retrieve bodies of dead hostages that have been lying in front of school for two days.
-Explosions are heard, possibly set off accidentally by militants themselves. Hostages take it as signal to flee, militants open fire on fleeing hostages, security forces return fire, lead 30 women and children to safety.
-About 1:45 p.m., militants begin fleeing building. Security forces pursue them in the town, begin storming the school building.
-Shortly after 2 p.m., commandos secure the school, freeing more hostages. Ambulances and private cars take hundreds of wounded to hospitals. Scattered shooting heard as security forces search streets and nearby buildings for fleeing militants, some of them apparently women who have disguised themselves in hostages' clothing.
-2:30 p.m.: As Russian commandos take complete control of school, they blow a hole in the wall of the school to aid hostage escape. Five militants reported killed.
-By 3:17 p.m.: All the hostages are reportedly evacuated with about 200 injured being taken to nearby hospitals. Up to 180 injured are reportedly children.
-3:25 p.m.: Escaped militants are reportedly holed up in local home, which is surrounded by troops. Tank fire heard at the home. Intermittent gunfire continues at school two hours after storming.
-4:30 p.m.: Regional president says hostage-takers had demanded Russian troops leave Chechnya - first clear indication of their demands and first direct link between incident and the ongoing war in Chechnya.
-More than 100 bodies found in the school, mostly in the gymnasium where roof had collapsed in an explosion. Two emergency workers reportedly killed, 10 militants reported killed in gunfights. Heath officials say 409 wounded, 219 of them children.
Sources: Russian and regional officials, media reports.
© The Canadian Press, 2004
Denonco këtë mesazh tek moderatorët | IP: e regjistruar
|
03 Shtator 2004 21:40
Forumi Horizont > Media dhe Politika > Mediat Shqiptare > Diskutime te ngjarjeve nga bota > Militantët lirojnë 31 pengje rusë - 100 ose me shume te vdekur
