Yahoo! News - Russia Mourns Hostage Deaths, Putin Criticized
BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - Russia on Monday mourned the deaths of hundreds of children and adults in its worst hostage drama as criticism mounted over the way President Vladimir Putin and his security forces handled the crisis.

In the aftermath of the bloody school siege by Chechen rebels, in which at least 335 hostages were killed, troops tightened security over fears that fury over the carnage would stoke smoldering ethnic and religious tensions in the Caucasus region of southern Russia.

In the cold, damp morning in the main Beslan cemetery, hundreds of people worked to prepare the graves. In the center of the cemetery, muddy after an overnight downpour, mounds of flowers lay over the graves of the victims buried on Sunday. The authorities have taken over a soccer-field sized plot of wasteland next to the cemetery to accommodate all the bodies.

Relatives, dressed in black, brought more flowers, many hugging each other. Some placed bottles of water by graves, a tribute to victims whose captors refused to let them drink during the 53-hour ordeal.

I wonder how the US would have handled something like this. I have to believe that we would have stormed the building also, if bombs were going off and gunshots heard. (Waco, anyone?)

What will Putin do? These people are not afraid to kill, not afraid to die. Makes it hard to find an answer.