Russia: Accidental Blast Led to Siege End

[russian33]

MOSCOW - The militants who raided a school in southern Russia last week were led by a man dubbed the Colonel, who enforced obedience by killing three fellow attackers — two by detonating the explosives they had strapped to their bodies.

Two days later, the attackers were moving the explosives they rigged around the gym where hundreds of hostages were held, and a bomb went off accidentally. That began the spiral of panic that led to the bloody conclusion of the standoff, in which more than 320 people were killed.

Those details were among several disclosed by Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov on Wednesday, in the government's first formal attempt to account for the tragedy last week. It came as Russia offered more than $10 million for information that helps "neutralize" two well-known rebel leaders from breakaway Chechnya (news - web sites) accused of planning the attack.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040908/ap_on_re_eu/russia_school_seizure&cid=518&ncid=716

[slojim240]

1. Did the attacking military cause the "accident?"

Based on what happened during the hostage incident in the theater, my guess would be that the Russian military was actually responsible for setting off the explosions. Putin tries to be the Russian Rambo and is very bit the fool that Bush is. When will the Russian people wake up and change the foreign policy direction of their country?

[russian33]

2. How can the military set-off explosives within the school from the outside

[atreides1]

3. Depends

On the stability on the explosives that were inside of the school. Some explosives are not very stable and it wouldn't take much for them to go off.

[stickdog]

12. Easy. Send the explosives in through the window.

Is this supposed to be some great mystery?

[Scairp]

4. I don't think that's how it happened

From the video released yesterday, you could see that the hostage-takers were being very careless with those explosives. I would say that the Russians are correct about how it started.

[PATRICK]

7. Except

that- reliable or not- as affirmed by one survivor- a hole was blown into the gym wall, precipitating the flight of hostages who were shot at by the terrorists THEN the gym bombs started to off, intentionally or otherwise as the troops rushed in to rescue the escapees. Branch Davidian to the nth factor. You certainly could not fault the chaos or desperation or the gamble had it been reported that way, but with a cover up? Who knows?

Considering the rotten development of this story it will be hard to trust an government scenario or timeline. What has been true in the past is that Russia is more concerned about controlling the story than even spinning the facts. The first story in my local paper had the first obvious untruths that only a fraction of the hostages had been hurt(the number of hostages was mysteriously unknown and depreciated all during the crisis despite it being a small town). The storyline- as if our lapdog regurgitators were still in Rove parrot mode- is still about 350 dead when hundreds of "missing" people make that number dishonest.

Those who would see dark intentions in our media might be comforted by seeing them as rather more handicapped by programmed incompetence and uncritical thinking. Here they are taking the Putin line as if it were Bush on high spooning out the dope. Parallels to 911 reportage and government control/reaction seem to invite comparisons.

[madrchsod]

8. also heard that report on npr

saturday..given what we know about the threatre blunder ,i`m tending to believe the russians didn`t want to wait any longer.....

[frylock]

11. most excellent post..

thanks for contributing.

[Cravat]

5. RF detonation.

It is common for VIP's and heads of state to travel with a Radio Freq broadcast system which can/should detonate IED's and command detonated RF wired explosives. That is a possibility.

But follow Occam's Razor. THe most likely to occur is what happened. Some monkey was playing around with is bomb belt or they were predeploying a booby trap and it went off. Happens all the time with trained professionals on controled ranges without the pressure of the Russian Military sitting outside your door.

One of Allah's boys just sped himself( and some children) to the afterlife.

[stickdog]

13. Occam's Razor = The explosions were set by the Russian Special Forces

They knew where the bombs were so they knew they could blame a terrorist accident for precipitating the firefight. One action explains everything. Simplicity itself.

[Aidoneus]

9. according to Aushev, some "stupid third force" triggered the end sequence

There are 2 different versions, both hinting at essentially accidents leading to the catastrophe that neither force had intended.

Ruslan Aushev, ex-Ingush President and major mediator for this, mentioned that some unofficial militia from outside started a fight when the special forces weren't. Those inside thought they were under attack, even though Aushev told them that they weren't, all hell broke loose from there. Aushev also said that when he talked to the people inside, none of them would speak Vainakh with him--that is, the language of Chechens & Ingushes--, just Russian with noticable accents.

The other version is that an explosive device precariously resting on one of the basketball hoops accidently fell and went off. This led people outside to think people inside were being suddenly shot, which they weren't, and led them to storm the place (which the President of North Ossetia-Alania had forbidden them from doing) without any organized plan made.

Let me find a decent translation of Aushev's interview and I'll post it here.

[Aidoneus]

10. can't find the best version I remember,

but here are 2 that'll have to due for now.

an early translation of Aushev's Novaya Gazeta interview:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/chechnya-sl/message/39998

BBC summary:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3634114.stm

[stickdog]

14. Both of these explanations make sense.

Thanks. I hadn't seen this.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

6. Chimps and bombs don't go together. Baaad science. n/t

Maybe everyone in the world should watch 'Bowling for Columbine.'