MOSCOW (Reuters) - A heavily armed gang seized at least 120 hostages at a Russian school near Chechnya on Wednesday and threatened to kill 50 children for every one of their group who was killed, a senior local official said.
The attack bore the signs of a Chechen rebel operation. The gang of up to 17 men and women stormed into the secondary school in Beslan in North Ossetia province during a ceremony to mark the first day of the new school year.
"They have said that for every fighter wiped out they will kill 50 children and for every fighter wounded -- 20," regional Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev told reporters in Beslan.
The gang, some strapped with explosives and reported to have mined the school grounds, later set free 15 of the children, Itar-Tass news agency said.
There was confusion over the exact number of hostages with initial reports putting it at 400. Interfax news agency later quoted local police as saying it was between 120 and 150.
I don't have much else to add to this other than to say that calling these monsters "rebels" is a misnomer. They are Islamic jihadist terrorists. They are murderers and cowards and should be referred to as such.
I'm also not surprised at all that they're threatening to kill school children. Hell, they use there own children as human shields in Iraq, what makes you think they'd respect the children of the "infidels?"
I don't do that well covering breaking news, so go to Jeff Quinton and Rusty Shackleford to keep track of events as they unfold. I'll post again if something major develops.