Posted on 09/03/2004 2:21:29 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
BESLAN, Russia (CNN) -- Hundreds more hostages may be inside a school under siege in southern Russian than first thought, Russian officials have said.
As the crisis entered its third day Friday, a spokesman for the regional government told CNN an earlier estimate of 350 hostages was low.
Two of 26 hostages freed by their captors on Thursday indicated there were 1,000 children, parents and teachers inside the building in Beslan, near the troubled Russian republic of Chechnya.
Relatives waiting outside the school also have said there could be as many as 1,000 hostages, noting that the school has 11 grades with 75-100 students in each grade.
Asked about the discrepancy with the earlier estimate, the regional government spokesman said officials originally accounted only for those children whose parents reported them missing.
But teachers also were in the school when armed attackers seized the building Wednesday morning.
And many of the children -- especially in the lower grades -- were accompanied by their parents and in some cases entire families for a celebration to mark the start of the school year.
"The situation in school very, very dire," CNN's Ryan Chilcote reported from the scene.
"Two of the 26 women and children released yesterday are saying the situation is very bad inside the school's gymnasium where the hostages are being kept.
"At one point the men were separated from the women and children. The men were then brought back into the gymnasium, but there weren't as many of them, and there's no word what happened to the other men."
"There is no food and water. At one point the hostage-takers brought them one cup of water for, as they put it, 1,000 hostages."
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
They didn't close off the area. Ragtag military forces according to Fox News.
back at cha
The helicopter is tracking them outside the building, and more fighting going on. The terrorists are now dressed in civilian clothes and are on the run, with hostages, and now they think some of the terrorists are up in some of the surrounding buildings. And firing still.
I wasn't trying to be snotty, they had different numbers on FOX, CNN and not sure about MSNBC and I was letting you know where I collected to post. I am sorry.
Russians blasting hole in wall for hostages to escape.
This is not ending yet.
I do not think they were planning to do what had occured about an hour ago. It was poorly handled.
This is the devils work. I've heard alot of the usual appeasement shite-talk on this side of the pond - Chechnya should be independent blath blath.. Man, I hate those people.
There's too many people still in there and if the building is under control, why aren't more of them coming out. I think there is more of a mess in there than we really want to know about.
I was saying adios to MarMema you may have to put up with my perky typing this morning!
Just saw more students coming out. Good.
Good. Prayers for those kids and their families.
Soldiers may not want hostages to leave because terrorists might escape with them. If they got moms or teachers clothing, the soldiers would never know who's who. Soldiers may have everyone surrounded and in a short while will question each before letting them out in single file. But that's just my .02.
oh...no prob...I understand....I only have CNN-Asia here
btt
FoxNews 20-24 bodies. Part of gym roof caved in. Some terrorists escaped while holding hostages. 160 children/adults (from inside the school) injured.
2 explosions.
Going on right now.
Gunfire ongoing.
5-6 terrorists may have escaped.
smoke rising from school area now
continued sporadic small arms & automatic fire
Just watching live...saw a young teen (about 13 or 14) getting in a vehicle. He was naked. Saw a man earlier holding a young boy maybe 3 or 4 years old. Child was naked. Older man (20ish-30ish) naked.
The terrorists must have had the hostaged stripped. No food for 3 days.
Fox\News 158 taken to hospital.
Both soldiers and terrorists may have caused explosions. Soldiers blasts to open up walls for easy access.
Machine gun fire ongoing live now.
Building wired with booby traps.
2 female hostage takers dressed in white as medical personnel have escaped and are being pursued
Here we have a group of terrorists who are willing to die for their cause. And also willing to kill any number of civilian men, women and children.
And as they fondle their AK-47's, they might think that even if they die, they are advancing the cause for their brothers, sisters, mothers , cousins, nephews, nieces, aunts, uncles and anybody else they care about. Their relatives will be safe - because they are "not involved". What a deal.
Suppose the Russians gathered all these people, if they know who the terrorists are, and put them in the same building. Message? "You terorists are killing people you don't know and don't care about. Here are some people we can kill who you DO care about. You make the call." Or, if everybody is killed, terrorists and hostages alike, the relatives can be rounded up later to send a message to future terrorists. The Russians have done this kind of thing before, in Beirut. It worked as far as I remember.
But...is this right? Is it wrong? Then again, was Hiroshima and Dresden right or wrong? It may come to this for us, when we are forced into a similar situation - and when the luxury of compassion for "non-involved" combatants may get thrown out the window.
But if history is any indicator, people will blather on about the finer points of a just war, until THEIR ox and children are gored. Then they want to nuke everybody.
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