Deutsche Welle special post mortem analysis of one of the worst terror incidents in Russia.

On Sept. 1, 2004, a group of militants seized a school in Beslan, Russia.  They headed an estimated 1,128 children, relatives, and teachers into the school's gym. The attackers threatened to detonate bombs if federal troops did not withdraw from the neighboring region of Chechnya.  Two days later, two powerful blasts rang out inside the school, causing part of the gym wall to collapse and prompting a combination of federal commandos, troops, police and local vigilantes to storm the building. 330 people died, more than half of them children, during the Sept. 3 storming. It has yet to be determined what caused the original explosions inside the school.

A single hostage-taker survived, Nur-Pashi Kulayev.  Kulayev, whose trial at the North Ossetian Supreme Court began in May, has pleaded innocent to charges including terrorism, murder, and attacking law enforcement officers. If convicted, he could get life in prison, though survivors and others have called for the death penalty. Many relatives of the victims and others here say the authorities should also be on trial for negligence and over-use of force.

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