Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

74 • BESLAN SCHOOL SIEGE AND MASSACREBESLAN SCHOOL SIEGE AND MASSACRE. On 1 September2004 at 9:30 a.m., at least 30 Chechnyan men and women in combatfatigues and wearing explosives-laden belts stormed School NumberOne in the city of Beslan in the North Ossetian region of Russia. About1,200 people, including around 800 schoolchildren, grades one througheight, and their teachers and parents, were attending ceremonies markingthe beginning of the school year. The attackers identified themselvesas the Riyah as-Saliheyn Martyrs’ Brigade and were part of theChechen separatist and Islamic fundamentalist terrorists.During the takeover, about 65 children and one adult managed tohide and later slip away, but the remaining adult hostages were forcedto tear up floorboards, revealing previously hidden weapons andmunitions. The attackers then killed 20 of the strongest male adultsand herded the remaining hostages into the gym, which was about25 meters (82 feet) long and 10 meters (33 feet) wide, where theyremained for the next two days in 90-degree heat and without wateror food. The hostage takers rigged the gym with explosives and tripwires, threatening to kill themselves and their hostages if any attemptwere made to rescue them. They released one child early on with alist of demands, namely, the release of imprisoned group memberscaught in an attack in Ingushtia the previous June, contact with thepresidents of the Ingushtian and North Ossetian regional governments,and contact with Dr. Leonid Roshal, the pediatrician who hadhelped hostages in the October 2002 Moscow theater siege.Russian security forces, including Federal Security Bureau (FSB)specialists, local government militia units, and Russian army and specialforces units, cordoned off the school grounds and also deployedtwo helicopter gunships, at least one tank, and several armored personnelcarriers to the scene. After former Ingushtian president RuslanAushev spoke with the attackers, they released 26 nursing mothersalong with at most one child each.On the second day, their negotiations with Dr. Roshal led only totheir refusal to exchange adult hostages for children or to be permittedsafe conduct out of the country, and refusal of offers other thanthe prisoner release that they had demanded. At 3:30 p.m. they firedtwo rocket-propelled grenades at security vehicles parked too closeto the compound.On the third day at 1:03 p.m., after the attackers permitted EmergencyMinistry personnel to approach the building to remove dead