Stan at Logic & Sanity is still doing a great job of translating reports from Russia as they come in, with heart wrenching photographs of children being evacuated from the school. Some of the Islamic terrorists have escaped and holed up in a residential house.

Children trying to escape (when the rescue operation started) where shot in the back and beaten with rifle butts.

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60 dead hostages identified so far.

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690 wounded.

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9 out of the 20 dead terrorists are arabs.

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Front page of utro.ru, right now, has a headline stating that one of the terrorists is black.

LGF reader MKSheppard has more details about the child killers who escaped the school.

Last report I have says its now 19 out of twenty dead. Three more are holed up in the building basement with some hostages, seven are in another building being pounded by tanks and the rest are fleeing through the countryside pursued by local citizens with deer rifles.

**EDIT** its now been reported that the ones who tried to flee across country (now numbered at 13) are holed up in a house, surrounded by local civilians who are shooting the place apart, brick by brick.

UPDATE at 9/3/04 10:53:21 am:

Again at Logic “”http://www.logicandsanity.com/archives/2004/09/hostages_zalina.html” TITLE=”Logic & Sanity: Hostage’s (Zalina) account”>Hostage’s (Zalina) account.

9:10am I walked my son (5th grader) to school. Two minutes after we walked into the court yard came the terrorists. There were about 20 of them and also 2 females. They herded us inside the school through the corridor and windows. Right away they killed 12-20 men - one at a time. Then a tank arrived and killed one of the terrorists, so they put several hostages next to a window and shot them dead. They threatened to kill 10 hostages for their dead, but I only saw about 4.

There were at least a thousand people in the gym. We sat on the floor. They threatened us and were generally very nervous - specially when it got noisy. They shot in the air. They put guns to some men’s temple’s and threatened to kill them if there’s noise. At first they gave us water and let us use the bathroom. Women with infants were put up separately. One of the terrorists was even sneaking in dry milk for a woman’s son, when his cohorts weren’t looking.

Terrorists were videotaping everything. They gave the tape to a negotiator to show it to Putin. At night they put up the elderly in rooms were it wasn’t as hot and gave everybody blankets.

They called negotiators a lot of times, but nobody wanted to speak with them. They said that the troops will storm them like they stormed the theater in Moscow in 2002.

I cooked for them in the kitchen, and for that they gave my son water. I talked to them and they told me that they want Putin to resign or to pull out the troops from Chechnya.

The principal of the school was horrified. She called officials on the phone, but nobody wanted to speak with her.

During the night, the terrorists told us that if they loose connection with the outside, they will shoot 10 people. The connection was lost (not sure if she talking bout radio contact or what), but they didn’t shoot anybody.

Terrorists didn’t even know what town they were in - in the beginning they even asked us where they were. They said that traffic cops were bribed. If they used more money for the bribes then the would have taken hostage a school in a bigger city (gazeta.ru - probably Vladikavkaz).

While I was cooking in the kitchen, one of them came in and took me to another room and told me to lay down. The woman I was working with went back to the gym and was killed with a grenade the terrorists threw when the storming began. I did not see troops/police storm in, but I heard children shouting “Don’t shoot!” and then the explosives went off. The terrorists were screaming something in their language, don’t know what, probably praying to Allah.