MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti) - The insurgents who 10 years ago on this day, took more than 1,100 school children, their teachers and relatives hostage in a school in Beslan, Russia turned down any negotiations, preferring violence and scare tactics, a special forces officer who was in command of an assault team during the 2004 Beslan hostage crisis told RIA Novosti.
“The terrorists placed most of the hostages in the school’s gym while searching the building. In order to avoid any bloodshed, the task force decided to try negotiating with the terrorists. The insurgents refused to talk, demanding that Russia pull its troops out of Chechnya. The security services decided to continue the negotiations, but they failed to bring any substantial results, Yury Torshin, a veteran of the FSB-operated Alpha special forces troops, said.
“We requested [them] to hand over water and some medicine to the children, but the terrorists refused to do this. As part of the scare tactic, they shot about 10 hostages dead and threw the bodies to the ground from the second floor,” Torshin added.
Several hours earlier on September 1, 2004, more than 30 insurgents stormed the Knowledge Day celebrations marking the beginning of the school year of a school in the town of Beslan, in the southern Russian republic of North Ossetia. The militants surrounded the school children, their teachers and some parents, and forced them into the school building. FSB-operated Alpha and Vympel special forces troops were alerted and sent to Beslan by plane.
It took two days to plan the rescue mission. The assault could not have been carried out immediately as it would have only led to more casualties, Torshin said to RIA Novosti.
Two terrorists managed to escape the building, but one of them was killed by the crowd. The only surviving insurgent turned out to be a low-ranking fighter unable to identify who planned the attack.
A total of 334 people, including 318 hostages, 186 of them children, 10 special forces officers and 15 policemen, were killed during the hostage crisis.
Read the full interview here.
