I remember reading a translated after action report on that. What happened there was more horrifying than the news ever reported. Young children were raped and murdered and the people were not going to stand for it.
It was a very messy operation as military operations go but the Chechens were going to kill everybody and the locals were not going to accept it.
I read that same report. They herded the girls into the gym and were systematically raping as many of them as they could. They killed many of the boys right from the start.
The locals knew it was a bloodbath inside and wanted it over. They understood the risks and the recriminations about it after the fact ring hollow. The only recrimination should have been that it took three days to start the operation instead of three hours.
It was awful what they did. I am surprised that some bunch of democrat voters hasn’t tried that here.