Beslan hostage-takers were able to flee, soldier says
Russian authorities captured one of the men who masterminded and led the Beslan school siege and are interrogating him although he has been officially declared dead, a newspaper claims. A man identified as Vassily K who says he was in the botched operation to free the hostages on 3 September has also said the authorities dramatically played down the number of hostage-takers and that many of the mostly Chechen militants were able to flee. His revelations, in the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda, punch a gaping hole through the official version of events and are corroborated, in part, by a leading member of the parliamentary commission investigating the tragedy, and by witnesses.Full Story