Beslan Massacre

The Children Of Beslan
Black September, sad day Three of September;

Pro-Russian Forces Accused of Seizing Chechen Rebel's Widow
Pro-Russian forces have allegedly kidnapped a young woman who secretly married Shamil Basayev, the Chechen warlord who was killed last month.

Russians Fail to Identify Chechen Warlord's Body From Fingerprints
Russian investigators have failed to identify the alleged body of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, because they do not have his fingerprints on file.

Russia: Secret Service Killed Rebel Leader, Paper Reports
Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader who was killed in an explosion on Monday, was targeted by a member of the security services using a satellite-linked detonator and information from an unmanned spy plane, the Izvestia newspaper said yesterday.

Beslan Terrorist Leader Killed, Reports Say
The Chechen rebel leader who claimed responsibility for the Beslan school massacre and the Moscow theatre siege has been killed, Russian media reported today.

Explainer: Shamil Basayev
Militant who went too far. He represented the inhuman face of the Chechen separatist conflict, the gunman prepared to bargain with and ultimately sacrifice the lives of hospital patients, commuters, theatregoers and schoolchildren.

Beslan Massacre Mastermind Dies in Blast As Russia Says He Was Plotting New Attack
· Anti-terror triumph for Putin on eve of G8 summit · 12 others die with 'enemy No 1' in vehicle explosions

Shamil Basayev
Obituary: Chechen politician seeking independence through terrorism.

Angry Relatives Vow to Continue Fight After Beslan Killer Gets Life
· Surviving hostage-taker escapes death penalty · Families divided over sentence for 330 deaths

Beslan Militant Gets Life Sentence
The sole surviving attacker of the Beslan school siege of September 2004 was found guilty today of murder, hostage taking and terrorism but was spared the death penalty because of Russia's current moratorium on executions.

Beslan Militant 'lived to Kill Again'
An Islamist militant who was supposedly killed during the carnage that ended the Beslan school siege has been "resurrected" by Russian investigators as a suspect in the assassination of a high-ranking government official.

Da Vinci Code Producers Buy Rights to Beslan Film
The film-makers behind the Da Vinci Code have acquired the rights to a magazine article about the Beslan hostage crisis in a bid to take Russia's worst terrorist disaster on to the big screen.

MPs Lay Blame for School Siege on Beslan Officials
· Police ignored repeated warnings, inquiry says · Victims' relatives call for the negligent to be named

We Can't Guarantee Security, Putin Tells Beslan Mothers
President Vladimir Putin yesterday admitted that Russia could not completely protect its citizens from terrorism. His remarks came before a meeting with three mothers of child victims of the Beslan siege, in which 331 hostages died a year ago today.

Fury and Grief As Beslan Remembers
No respite for relatives as anniversary of siege is marked.

Hundreds Gather to Mourn Beslan Dead
Hundreds of mourners gathered at a school in Beslan today to mark the anniversary of last year's siege, in which 331 people died, 186 of them children. Relatives of the victims and survivors of the siege filed silently into the burnt-out sports hall of Middle School No 1 carrying red...

Saudi Link to Beslan Militant
One of the 32 militants who seized the school in Beslan a year ago taking 1,128 people hostage was probably a Saudi called Abu Farukh.

One Year On, Beslan Mourns Its Dead and Demands the Truth
Anger grows over Kremlin's official version of siege.

Beslan Massacre Chief Promoted
Shamil Basayev, the warlord behind last year's bloody school siege in Beslan, was named second-in-command of Chechnya's rebel government yesterday in a sign of the separatists' growing radicalism.

Mothers Show Pity for Beslan School Killer
As he stepped blinking into the glare of the cramped courtroom, a crowd of bereaved mothers confronted Nurpashi Kulayev, the last surviving militant from the gang that seized School Number One in Beslan, screaming: 'Beast! Child-killer!'

World Briefing
For Ramzan Kadyrov, the first deputy prime minister in Chechnya's pro-Moscow government, the hunt for the man behind last September's murderous siege at the school in Beslan, North Ossetia, is a personal affair. Simon Tisdall

Russia Blames Chechen Sisters for Suicide Bombings
Two female suicide bombers behind two of the most deadly militant attacks to hit Russia - the Beslan school massacre and a passenger jet bombing a week earlier - were members of the same family and probably sisters, Russian prosecutors have revealed.

Chechens Bypass Basayev for Unidentified New Leader
Chechen separatists quickly appointed a successor to the killed leader Aslan Maskhadov yesterday, withholding his name but making it clear that it was not Russia's most wanted man, the mastermind of hostage taking, Shamil Basayev.

Russian School Siege Suspects Killed
Five people suspected of involvement in last year's Beslan school massacre have been killed by Russian authorities while resisting arrest, an official said today.

Mystery Still Shrouds Beslan Six Months on
Theories and rumours fuel relatives' doubt and anger.

Ingushetian Security Officer Implicated in Beslan Massacre
A former policeman was among at least 30 militants who took more than 1,300 schoolchildren, parents and teachers hostage at a school in southern Russia in September, it was reported yesterday. Russian special forces identified Bashir Pliyev by his fingerprints from among the militants...

London Mosque Link to Beslan
A member of the group responsible for the Beslan school massacre last month is a British citizen who attended the infamous Finsbury Park mosque in north London, The Observer can reveal. Two other members of the group, loyal to Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, are also believed to have been...

Tracing a Tragedy
Do the roots of the slaughter in Middle School Number 1 lie in the wreckage of Chechnya - or the rise of international Islamist terrorism? In an effort to understand the horrific events he witnessed earlier this month, Nick Paton Walsh travelled from Beslan, via turbulent Ingushetia, to the remote Chechen village which produced two of the world's most reviled men.

Children in Russia to Get Dog Tags
Russian school children are to wear military-style dog tags and carry 'passports' displaying their identity and basic medical information to improve school security after the Beslan tragedy.

Russian Editor Faces Sack Over Beslan Coverage
12.30pm: The editor of one of Russia's leading business weeklies may be dismissed after he criticised President Vladimir Putin's handling of the Beslan school tragedy. By Claire Cozens.

Beslan Militants 'called Middle East'
Two of the militants who took part in the Beslan school hostage siege phoned the Middle East during the drama, a senior source from the Russian security services has said. The official said two calls were made from Beslan in Arabic, and that "one call was to Saudi Arabia by one of the...

Beslan Siege Plotter Will Be Tried, Vows Chechen Leader
Russia rejects Maskhadov's attempt to distance himself from attack.

Grieving Beslan Residents Suspect Death Toll Cover-up
Local mistrust is fuelled by discrepancies in official casualty figures.

Bush Rebukes Move By Putin to Limit Russian Democracy
A row between Russia and America over Moscow's response to the Beslan tragedy escalated yesterday when George Bush voiced concern that a sweeping Kremlin security overhaul "could undermine democracy". Hours after Russia warned Washington not to meddle in its internal affairs, Mr Bush...

Tragedies Like Beslan Killings 'inevitable'
West has helped fuel extremism in the Caucasus, claims Chechen.

Putin Tightens Grip on Regions and Mps
President Vladimir Putin made constitutional changes yesterday designed to increase his personal control of the regions and parliament, saying the government needed "strengthening" because it had failed at Beslan in its fight against terrorism. He told regional governors, cabinet...

Grief Turns to Anger in Dark Beslan
The tally of the missing and the killers' identity are still in doubt as the mood turns to revenge.

The Readers' Editor on ... Reporting the Horror of Beslan
Ian Mayes: Complaints about the Guardian's coverage of the horrific events in Beslan have been relatively few. One might assume from this that the enormity of the event checked the critical hand, or even that there was a tacit sympathy with the paper's struggle to relate and comprehend such an event.

Second Beslan Reporter Drugged
Concern over Russia's treatment of journalists covering the Beslan siege increased yesterday after a toxicologist revealed that traces of a tranquilliser had been found in a reporter who was arrested on her way to the school. Nana Lezhava, from Georgia's independent Rustavi-2 TV station,...

Second Journalist 'drugged' By Russians
10.30am: A Georgian journalist held by Russian authorities after reporting on the Beslan school massacre was drugged, according to medical experts, raising fresh concerns about press freedom in Russia. By Claire Cozens and agencies.

Foreign Minister Attacks Britain for Granting Asylum to Chechen
Russia yesterday rounded on Britain for having granted political asylum to Akhmed Zakayev, a spokesman for the Chechen separatist leader that Moscow claims is behind the Beslan school massacre, and letting him live in London. Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, said yesterday: "Granting...

Russia Puts Price on Rebels' Heads
Russia's security service, the FSB, today promised a reward of up to £5.8m for information that could help to "neutralise" Chechen rebel leaders. Moscow has accused Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov of masterminding the school hostage crisis in the North Ossetian town of Beslan last...

Film Taken By Militants Shows Hostages' Desperate Plight
Dramatic images of life inside the gym during the hostage-taking at middle school 1 in Beslan were shown last night by the Russian television station NTV for the first time. The images show a room packed with about 1,000 hostages, including men, women and children. Barely a square metre...

The Caucasian Vicious Circle
The horrors of Beslan fit into an old template of recrimination and revenge in one of the Russian federation's most ethnically complex regions, writes David Hearst.

Another Journalist Held Amid Fears of Media Crackdown
9.45am: Russian authorities have detained the Moscow bureau chief of the satellite TV channel al-Arabiya on his way to Moscow from Beslan, where he was covering the hostage crisis. By Claire Cozens and agencies.

Angry Putin Rejects Public Beslan Inquiry
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, last night refused to order a public inquiry into how the Beslan school was captured by gunmen and then ended with such a high death toll, and told the Guardian that people who call for talks with Chechen leaders have no conscience. "Why don't you...

Rumours Fuel Anger of Beslan's Men
Alan Milburn's prospective return to government, if it happens, would be an event of great and intriguing importance. It might even help to define the shape of British politics for a decade to come. Here's why.

Russia Mourns Beslan's Dead
Flags were flying at half-mast across Russia today as two days of national mourning began for the more than 330 people killed in the Beslan school siege. Some 100 funerals were expected to take place today in the small city in North Ossetia, in the south of the country, and there will be...

Frantic Search for Missing in Beslan
· 180 children and adults still unaccounted for : · Field becomes cemetery as death toll reaches 335.

Focus: When Hell Came Calling at Beslan's School No 1
It started with children laughing and ended in gunfire and slaughter - a 53- hour siege that horrified the world. Nick Paton Walsh and Peter Beaumont tell the inside story of an atrocity that turned to chaos.

Putin's Warning As Terror Deaths Top 360
As the death toll in the siege of Beslan's School Number One climbed to 330 - 156 of them children - President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that terrorists had declared 'a full-scale war' on Russia.

Nick Paton Walsh Reports on the Grief and Anger Engulfing Beslan
As Russia comes to terms with the school atrocity, Nick Paton Walsh in Beslan reports on the grief and anger engulfing a community.

Death Toll Rises to 323 at Beslan
· Bodies pulled from ruined school
· Putin admits security weaknesses
· Borders closed in crackdown

There Will Be Another Beslan
In asymmetrical war, the most vulnerable will always be on the frontline. It descended into blood, panic, violence and tragedy. None of the children, parents and teachers killed and wounded in Beslan deserved this barbarism.

Hostages Flee Amid Firefight
Around 40 women and children escaped today from the school in southern Russia where hundreds of people are being held hostage by terrorists. Gunfire and two explosions were heard as troops engaged in firefights with the hostage-takers in Beslan, North Ossettia. One unconfirmed...

A Terrible Lesson From a Classroom in Beslan
The west can no longer ignore the violence and killings in Chechnya. Children make it different. Like the tragedies of Columbine and Dunblane, the terror that stalks the classrooms of besieged Middle School 1 in Beslan, North Ossetia, is uniquely disturbing.

120 Held Hostage at Russian School
At least 120 people, including many children, were today taken hostage in a school in southern Russia. A group of heavily-armed men and women stormed the secondary school, in the city of Beslan, during a morning ceremony being held to mark the first day of the new school year...