Beslan: Attackers drug addicts

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Well, that explains it.

Moscow - Forensic tests have shown that some of the terrorists who seized more than 1 000 hostages in a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan last month were drug addicts, a senior prosecutor was quoted as saying Sunday.

Nikolai Shepel, Russia's deputy prosecutor-general, said forensic experts found traces of drugs in the bodies of some of the militants that exceeded normally lethal levels, indicating they were long-term drug addicts, according to a statement carried by the Interfax and ITAR-Tass news agencies.

Tests also revealed that "some of the terrorists had run out of drugs and were in a state of withdrawal, which usually comes with aggressiveness and inadequate behaviour," Shepel said.

"This allows us to assess the situation before the tragic outcome."

[splat]

1. What kind of drugs? n/t

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2. I would infer some sort of opiate, but it doesn't really say.

Could be some form of crank as well, crank is very popular in
military circles, but of course that is authorized, professional
use. :puke:

The claim of physical addiction limits the possibilities a good deal.

I would take this with a grain of salt. Might be true, might not.
I don't find anything odd in the notion that combatants get loaded
a good deal. You are hearing about it because the Russian "security"
establishment wants to cover their ass.

[Warpy]

3. Right, something that would have made them largely immune

to the fentanyl gas that killed them in the Moscow theater. Perhaps that was part of the strategy, to alllow them to resist a former tactic used by the Russians.

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4. An excellent point. nt

[Aidoneus]

5. Next time may be difficult

Is there a drug made that can resist flame-throwers? That bit still throws me..