http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3636818.stm

Russia has offered 300m roubles ($10m) for information leading to the arrest of Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov.

Security services want any information that could help to "neutralise" the two following the Beslan school siege.

The regional government in North Ossetia is resigning, the republic's president, Alexander Dzasokhov, told angry protesters.

He said officials guilty of failings would be punished.

Repeatedly interrupted by calls of "Resign! Resign!" he said that he too was considering his position.

Tempers also continued to run high in Beslan itself, with more anti-government demonstrations, and more funerals for those killed in the siege.

"If he comes near me I will kill him," said Izeta Khugayeva, who lost her sister and niece in the siege, said of Mr Dzasokhov, as relatives held a vigil outside the school.

Putin briefed

At least 326 people were killed, about half of them children, and 727 wounded, Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov said on Wednesday, revising the death toll down from 335. More than 100 bodies have yet to be identified.

Mr Ustinov said the bloody climax to the siege seemed to have begun when the hostage-takers were rearranging explosives in the school gymnasium and accidentally detonated one of them.

He said the hostage-takers had gathered in a forest before on 1 September then driven to the school with a lorry and two jeeps packed with weapons and explosives.

Twelve had now been identified, he added, but gave no details of names or nationalities.

The town's children were celebrating the start of the new school year with parents and staff a week ago when they were taken hostage. The crisis ended in massive bloodshed on Friday.

In response to the tragedy, European Parliament president Josep Borrell on Wednesday called on schools throughout the EU to observe a minute's silence on 14 September.

Pre-emptive strikes

The Russian army's Chief of Staff, General Yuri Baluevsky, said Moscow planned to launch pre-emptive strikes on terrorist bases "in any region of the world".

A spokesman for Mr Maskhadov, Ahmed Zakayev, described the threat as a "disturbing signal for civilised countries" and said it set a dangerous precedent.

"It is a warning to other European countries that Russia may come and carry out an assassination on your soil at any moment," he said.

However, analysts said the doctrine might only be applied to former Soviet countries - such as Georgia, to the south of Chechnya, which Russia has accused of providing a haven for Chechen fighters.

The two rebel leaders attracting offers of rewards from the Federal Security Bureau have been wanted by Russian authorities for years in connection with various attacks.

Mr Maskhadov was elected president of Chechnya in 1997, but Moscow now considers him a terrorist.

Mr Basayev is a Chechen field commander, accused of masterminding operations and known for his extreme brutality.

He led the first Chechen mass hostage-taking in the southern Russian town of Budyonnovsk in 1995 and he claimed to have organised the seizing of a Moscow theatre in 2002, during which some 130 people died.

 

To me this sounds very serious. This is news comming right after the massived chechnian hostage situation and the Russians are pissed. This isn't on the level of 9/11 but there has been an ongoing fight between Russia and Chechnia and this may have been the final straw. I can see this escalating into an all out war.

 

The Russians are coming! The Russians are coming!

I like the Russians; they don't do bullshit. Like the Chinese, they'd send an army to kill in a hostage situation. But it's too bad that 326 had to die in that particular incident.

Hypothetically speaking, if there were some terrorist bases in the U.S., would the Russians strike on U.S. soil? The answer would be "hell no!" So I don't think the title "ANY nation" would be too accurate.

 

Well no you're right. in the article the guy said that it was mainly countries of the former USSR that would be targetted, mainly Georgia. But they're basically saying they will invade any country that has terrorist groups operating within it and attack them.

 

Yeah, they should strike and kill those damned terrorists. Invading a school was way out of line. But I was very surprised that the government sent in an army to fight them. If this was to happen in the U.S., I think the gov here would negotiate 'til the end. If this was to happen in China, they'd bomb the whole damn school to get it over with.

Anyway, there'll always be terrorists, as long as there are oppositions and resistance. If some terrorists are killed, their families will take over out of bitterness, so the cycle keeps on circling.

 

Remember last year when the Chechnians took over that theater? Held everyone inside hostage. I forgot how long it was a day or two went by i think, the the Russians threw some unkown gas into the building and stormed the place, killed a few of the hostages but who knows what could ahve happened to the ones that they saved had they left them their longer.

 

Yeah, I remember that incident. But this time, the terrorists were smarter; they broke all the windows in case the gov threw in smoke bombs.

 

The school was just too sad to watch. Innocent lives are taken in middle of a war between people who are crazy.

 

the US and Russia should just get together and play a game of who can kill the most terroists... a shot of vodka for every 10 they kill?

 

I know you're joking...but for what it's worth, I like the idea!