A booby trap is just that..these militants went in within one thing in mind–victims. Whether a kid tripped a wire or accidentally touched an explosive device is of no relevance.

They had no delusions they would exit this place alive. So those bombs were intended to go off one way or the other.

As organized as some of these terrorist groups are, they don’t believe that holding hostages in a school would give them sufficient bargaining leverage… Intimidation was the goal.

It’s one thing to kidnap someone, and threaten to behead them should appropriate action not be followed (ie: Al Zarqawi and others in Iraq) but lacing the premises with explosive arsenal is designed to end in one manner - tragedy.

I think this was a test run, like the Deippe raid.

Also, according to at least one account, the last explosion, which partially collapsed the gym and did most of the killing, was accidental. A booby trap was detonated accidentally. My guess is that the first ones were, as well, because the Russians weren’t actually attacking. They had just sent teams in to retrieve the dead an wounded.

In my next post, I’m including excepts from an interview with Gennady Gudkov, State Duma deputy and an FSB reserve general who briefly discusses (and confirms) why gas is out of the question.