Introduction

Introduction
The Beslan school hostage crisis (also referred to as the Beslan school siege or Beslan massacre) of early September 2004 was a three-day hostage-taking of over 1,100 people which ended in the deaths of over 380. It began when a group of armed mostly Ingush and Chechen Islamic militants took more than 1,100 people (including 777 children) hostage on 1 September, at School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia, an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. The hostage taking was carried out by the group Riyadus-Salikhin, sent by the Chechen separatist warlord Shamil Basayev who issued demands of an end to the Second Chechen War and Russian withdrawal from Chechnya. On the third day of the standoff, Russian security forces stormed the building, using tanks, incendiary rockets and other heavy weapons. A series of explosions shook the school, followed by a fire which engulfed the building and a chaotic gunbattle between the hostage-takers and Russian security forces. Ultimately, at least 334 hostages were killed, including 186 children; hundreds more were injured and many were reported missing.
In this session we will be reading about this disaster.

Basic Information
Date: 1 September 2004 – 3 September 2004
Deaths: At least 385
Injured: About 783

One of the terrorists responsible for this attack

The tragedy led to security and political repercussions in Russia, most notably a series of federal government reforms consolidating power in the Kremlin and strengthening of the powers of the President of Russia.
As of 2011, there are many aspects of the crisis still in dispute, including how many militants were involved, their preparations, and whether some of them had escaped. Questions about the government's management of the crisis have also persisted, including disinformation and censorship in news media, repression of journalists who rushed to Beslan, the nature and content of negotiations with the militants, the responsibility for the bloody outcome, and the government's use of possibly excessive force.