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Dagestan - The Siege of Beslan

D14 Airsoft

3433 Cowling Road, Sanger, TX 76266, USA

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Event Description

The Beslan siege started the first of September 2004. It lasted three days and involved the capture of over 1,100 people as hostages and ending with the death of 334 people. The crisis began when a group of armed Dagestani terrorists occupied School Number One in the town of Beslan, North Ossetia in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation. The hostage-takers were sent by the Chechen terrorist warlord Shamil Basayev, who demanded recognition of the independence of Chechnya at the UN and Russian withdrawal from Chechnya. 
Early in the morning, a group of several dozen heavily armed Dagestani guerrillas left a forest encampment located in the vicinity of the village of Psedakh in the neighboring republic of Ingushetia, east of North Ossetia and west of war-torn Chechnya. The rebels wore civilian cloths and black balaclava masks. On the way to Beslan, they captured an Ingush police officer, Major Sultan Gurazhev. 
At 09:11 local time, the terrorists arrived at Beslan in a GAZelle police van and a GAZ-66 military truck. During the initial chaos, up to 50 people managed to flee and alert authorities to the situation. A number of people also managed to hide in the boiler room. After an exchange of gunfire against the police and armed local civilians, the militants seized the school building. The attackers took approximately 1,100 hostages. The militants herded their captives into the school's gym and confiscated all their mobile phones under threat of death, and ordered everyone to speak in Russian and only when spoken to. 
A security cordon was soon established around the school, consisting of the Russian Army forces, Spetsnaz, Russian Federal Security Service, and the OMON special units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. A line of three apartment buildings facing the school gym was evacuated and taken over by the Special Forces. The perimeter they made was within 225 metres (738 ft) of the school. The attackers mined the gym and the rest of the building with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and surrounded it with tripwires. In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill 50 hostages for every one of their own members killed by the police, and to kill 20 hostages for every gunman injured. They also threatened to blow up the school if government forces attacked. To avoid being overwhelmed by gas attack like their comrades in the 2002 Moscow hostage crisis, insurgents quickly smashed the school's windows. 
According to reports, the Russian Army Forces were looking for a peaceful resolution of the situation at the same time when the secret command headquarters set up by the RFSS was preparing the assault. In many ways the RFSS restricted the actions of the RADF, in particular in their attempts to negotiate with the militants.
On 2 September 2004, negotiations between the RAFl and the hostage-takers proved unsuccessful, and they refused to allow food, water, or medicine to be taken in for the hostages. The crisis was met with a near-total silence from then-President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the rest of Russia's political leaders. Only on the second day did Putin make his first public comment on the siege during a meeting in Moscow: "Our main task, of course, is to save the lives and health of those who became hostages. All actions by our forces involved in rescuing the hostages will be dedicated exclusively to this task." 
At around 15:30, two grenades were detonated approximately ten minutes apart by the militants at security forces outside the school, setting a police car on fire and injuring one officer, but Russian forces did not return fire. Overnight, a police officer was injured by shots fired from the school. Talks were broken off, resuming the next day.
Around 13:00 on 3 September 2004, it was agreed to allow four Ministry of Emergency Situations medical workers in two ambulances into the school. However, at 13:03, when the paramedics approached the school, an explosion was heard from the gymnasium. The hostage-takers then opened fire on them. They quickly took cover behind their vehicle. The second, "strange-sounding", explosion was heard 22 seconds later. At 13:05 the fire on the roof of the sports hall started and soon the burning rafters and roofing fell onto the hostages below. 
The Russian parliamentary commission said the militants had started the battle by intentionally detonating bombs among the hostages, to the surprise of Russian negotiators and commanders. Part of the sports hall wall was demolished by the explosions, allowing some hostages to escape. Local militia opened fire, and the militants returned fire. Russian officials say militants shot hostages as they ran, and the military fired back. A battle broke out as the Special Forces fought to enter the school. The forces included the assault groups of the RFSS and the associated troops of the Russian Army and the Russian Interior Ministry, supported by a number of T-72 tanks from Russia's 58th Army, BTR-80 wheeled armored personnel carriers and armed helicopters, including at least one Mi-24 attack helicopter.
 Many local civilians also joined in the battle, having brought along their own weapons. Powerful Shmel rockets were fired at the school from the positions of the special forces. Russian officials denied the use of the rockets in the battle. Nine empty disposable tubes were later found on the rooftops of nearby apartment blocks. A BTR armored vehicle drove close to the school and opened fire from its 14.5x114mm KPV heavy machine gun at the windows.
Eyewitnesses and journalists saw two T-72 tanks advance on the school that afternoon, at least one of which fired its 125 mm main gun several times on orders from the RFSS. Scores of hostages were moved by the militants from the burning sports hall into the other parts of the school, in particular the cafeteria, where they were forced to stand at windows.
By 15:00, two hours after the assault began, Russian troops claimed control of most of the school. However, fighting was still continuing on the grounds as evening fell, including resistance from a group of militants holding out in the school's basement. During the battle, a group of some 13 militants broke through the military cordon and took refuge nearby. Several of them were believed to have entered a nearby two-story building, which was destroyed by tanks and flamethrowers around 21:00. 
Another group of militants appeared to head back over the railway, chased by helicopters into the town. Sporadic explosions and gunfire continued at night despite reports that all resistance by militants had been suppressed, until some 12 hours after the first explosions. Early the next day Putin ordered the borders of North Ossetia closed while some hostage-takers were still pursued.

Dagestan
The Siege of Beslan
May 1st and 2nd
Map of Event Location
May 1st, 2015  4:00 pmMay 2nd, 2015  6:00 pm