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| Caucasus |
| Russian hostage death toll up to 118... |
| 2002-10-27 |
| The death toll suffered in bringing an end to the three-day Moscow theatre siege has risen to 118 captives and 50 hostage-takers. Nobody care about the dead Chechens, except for their Moms, as long as there were 50 hostage takers alive, and then 50 hostage takers dead... More than 750 hostages were rescued, including all 75 non-Russians and 25 children, when special forces stormed the building. But the death toll is much higher than originally thought — it had first been said that only 10 captives had died. Russian special forces, from the Federal Security Service (FSB), used a sedative gas before storming the theatre early Saturday. Many captives were taken to hospital suffering from the effects of the chemical. There's speculation that the "sedative gas" was in fact nerve gas in diluted form. It was not clear if the additional 28 hostages had died while being treated in hospital, or if the number was a revised death toll. CNN has been unable to independently confirm the new figure. But questions are being asked Sunday as to whether the use of a knock-out mystery gas by Russian special forces contributed to the high death toll among the hostages. Russian deputy interior minister Vladimir Vasilyev admitted a sleep-inducing nerve gas "... allowed us to neutralize, among others, those women kamikazes who were literally encased in explosives with their fingers on the detonators." The potential — and likely — death toll was 750, since the Bad Guys were hung about with the usual explosives and had the place mined. So the Russers made a tradeoff. Using a sedative or tranquilizer gas makes a lot of sense. This version seems to need more work, but it gave them the opportunity to go in, administer the antidote (probably atropine or a successor drug) to the hostages and just let the Bad Guys start decomposing. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |