Here's an interesting twist - and it's hard to tell if it's just th emilitary trying to make excuses, or a tragic reality ... but this BBC story about the Russian siege suggests that CIVILIANS, who were apparently TRYING ot help, may inadvertently have triggered the slaughter.


news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3634114.stm

Quoted: dk... Ruslan Aushev told the Novaya Gazeta newspaper that the civilians had opened fire at the school after an explosion sent children streaming out. the latest info suggests that the terrorists had a fight amongst themselves. one leader of the terrorists executed one of the terrorists(with small arms fire) that disagreed with him, then he detonated the bomb belts on two of the female terrorists.

That might be,


What I read in the BBC story was that one of the bombs acidentally was detonated, and some hostages ran for it - and that was when the civilians started opening fire - which then led to the terrorists going postal, even though the russian troops were not firing.


Like I said, it's hard to figure out what happened - and who is trying to point fingers and cover their ass - so the version you heard might absolutely be true.  I guess technically, they could both be true - in that the deliberate detotnation oft wo explosives sitll might not have precipataed the slaughter of the hostages, but perhaps the civilian fire did trigger it.


maybe it's one of those things we'll never know for sure

Quoted: if a school is taken here, the result will end much the same as in beslan. no amount of snipers, swat teams, night vision gear or fancy knee pads is going to prevent the carnage. it will end badly. our only hope is to kill the bastards before they can take control.

I'm with stupid, oh wait this isn't pre-abn.

I agree though, not much would be different, which is sad but is yet another reason for us to kill them overthere vice over here.