Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Beslan Massacre Five Years Later


There are times when evil is so omnipresent that it hits you in the gut the moment you see it. 9/11 was one such time. Another was the Beslan school massacre, where 334* people were murdered by Chechen Islamist terrorists. They captured an entire school in Beslan on its opening day in 2004, holding more than 1,200 people against their will in the process. A three-day standoff ensued, and on the third day, a running gun battle began between Russian forces and the terrorists.

The terrorists had brought many of the children and adults accompanying them on their first day of school into the gymnasium, which was rigged with explosives. The terrorists themselves were rigged with explosives and suicide vests.

The terrorists then detonated the explosives in the gym, and within moments, hundreds of people were dead. 187 children were murdered by the group, led by unrepentant terrorist, the Butcher of Beslan, Shamil Basayev.

He would meet his end in July 2006, when Russian forces killed him in a raid. Basayev would have been eliminated much sooner had ABC News provided the Russians with details of their earlier meeting with the terrorist.

Others remembering the massacre include Michelle Malkin.

*wiki says that 334 people were murdered in the Beslan School #1 massacre, although the numbers vary according to sources. At least 10 Russian special forces were killed in the operation as well. Nearly 800 people were injured in the attack. It was one of the largest terrorist attacks in history, and the scope of the attacks showed that terrorists will continue targeting anyone and everyone in their paths - and that no where is safe.

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