09/07/2004: "Piranha kill own kind, then children"

So let's say you're a terrorist mastermind, and you're planning to attack a school full of children. What do you do if some of your colleagues decide that they don't have the stomach for such barbarism? Simple: you do what you do best:

Guerrillas ["guerrillas"? AP doesn't know how to spell the word "terrorists"?-A.] behind the horrific slaughter at the middle school in Beslan in southern Russia appear to have planned their operation meticulously, starting months earlier and sneaking weapons into the building in advance.

Still, they may have made at least one glaring miscalculation. A lawyer for a captured hostage-taker said that some of the raiders didn't know exactly what they were getting into and were appalled to find they were holding children hostage.

That sparked a dispute in which some of the objecting militants were killed by their own comrades, the lawyer said.

Reports portray the raid as a fastidiously prepared operation�in which militants used renovation work as a cover to plant arms and explosives in the school�almost literally under authorities' noses.

"The bandits were able to bring into the school a large quantity of weapons, ammunition, equipment and explosives, under the guise of planks, cement and other building material�enough to defend the seized place for a long period," [a law enforcement] official said.

Umar Sikoyev, a lawyer for a captured militant identified as Nur-Pashi Kulayev, said the band's leader did not tell them what their mission was and that after the seizure a fierce argument broke out in the band, with several objecting that taking children as hostages was wrong.

The raid's commander shot the dissidents' leader to death and then detonated the suicide belts worn by two women raiders by remote control to establish order in the band, Sikoyev told The Associated Press.

At least the disgusting specimens were consistent. Pity the dissidents didn't get their guns up fast enough.

(Thanks to Damian Penny for the link.)