Word: beslan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Sometimes it is the gift of children to keep their parents strong. Elena Kasumova felt her hope dying as she huddled last Friday with her son Timur, 9, in the sweltering gym of Beslan school No. 1. The hostage nightmare was into its third day: many children had stripped to their underwear, some fainted from thirst, and others drank their urine. The 16 guerrillas Kasumova could see, mostly Chechens in their 20s, were by now tired and tense. The ceiling beams were draped with bombs. Some were hanging so low that the taller women banged their heads on them...
That was all a mere prelude to the atrocity that began the next day. For the first day of school in Beslan, a midsize town of 30,000 located about 900 miles from Moscow, parents brought snacks for the children. Students brought flowers for their teachers, and some carried balloons. They were just lining up in the schoolyard when dozens of men in black ski masks and camouflage appeared. "This is a seizure!" they shouted, as panicked families tried to flee. A few lucky children hid behind heating-system boilers and got away; the rest were herded into...
...avoid being overwhelmed by narcotic gas like their comrades had been in the October 2002 Moscow theater siege--in which 41 terrorists and 129 hostages died--the rebels quickly smashed the school's windows. After reviewing the situation, an officer from the secretive Alpha antiterrorist unit told a senior Beslan legal figure that the Moscow theater siege "was a kindergarten compared to this...
...Speaking in the aftermath of two weeks of terrorist attacks, including the hostage crisis in Beslan, that left a total of at least 450 dead, the president also announced tougher domestic security policies, particularly on Russia's borders, to emulate U.S. actions following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York and Washington...
...meeting with reporters in the presidential compound at Novo Ogarevo near Moscow, lasted until 12:30 a.m. Putin had kept out of public view during the crisis, emerging only after the bloody climax for a quick flight to Beslan to meet with survivors. During a ten-minute televised address to the nation last weekend, the normally impassive president had trouble containing his emotions...