"Second Beslan" Islamic terrorist plot foiled in Russia

Troops on Friday stormed two houses in southern Russia where alleged Chechen militants were holed up, killing twelve suspects, the regional Interior Ministry said.
A police officer who had gone missing during the first day of fighting on Thursday was found dead, bringing the toll among police to four, said Roman Shchekotin, spokesman for the southern regional office of the Russian Interior Ministry.
Police, acting on a tip off, hunted down the Islamic militant group in Tukui-Mekteb, a village in the southern Stavropol region, about 40 kilometers north of the border with Chechnya. The suspected Chechen Islamic militants refused to surrender.
Channel One television said that firing and explosions had continued into the early hours today, and that residents of the village were evacuated at dawn. It showed about a dozen women, some draped in blankets, walking quickly away, one carrying a baby. Russians investigators believe that terminated group was planning several terrorist including "Beslan-like" attack on a school.