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Shane, the majority (or at least a large part -- it's not clear yet) of the hostage-takers in Beslan were not even Chechens. There were Chechens, Ingush, ethnic Russians, an African, Arabs, Koreans, and others, including an Ossetian.
It was not "perpetrated in the first instance by people carrying out retribution for real atrocities against their friends and families," unless Russia is bombing Korea all of a sudden. I would guess they were probably mercenaries.
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