Nalchik, the day after

According to this Washington Post report:

Early Friday, Russian special forces stormed a police station in southern Russia where eight militants were holding five hostages. The hostages, including police officers, were freed and all eight militants were killed as they tried to flee in a van, Russian officials said.

Around 8:30 a.m. local time Friday, another three gunmen were killed in a downtown Nalchik souvenir store where they had barricaded themselves with two hostages Thursday. The Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported that two hostages were freed. Russian officials said the militants in the store refused to talk to the security forces that had surrounded them.

The exact death toll from fighting over the last couple of days remains unclear, but may top 100 dead. Corpses were left lying in the streets Friday, the Associated Press reported, and police kicked at the bodies, some of which were clad in tracksuits and running shoes.

A spokesman for the local Interior Ministry said Friday morning that 68 militants had been killed. RIA Novosti reported that 24 security officers and police had died, and there were other reports that between 12 and 24 civilians had died.

It also seems unlikely that terrorist leader Shamil Basayev was killed. From The Moscow Times:

[The deuputy interior minister] said the Interior Ministry could not confirm reports that Chechnya's notorious warlord Shamil Basayev had been behind the raid

MOSNews says the report of Basayev's death has been retracted.

The Chechen Society newspaper that carried news of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev’s death in Nalchik earlier on Thursday evening, citing an FSB source, later retracted the announcement, calling it “wishful thinking” on the part of the Russian authorities.

Gateway Pundit has another excellent report.

(Here is my report on Nalchik from yesterday.)

I received word from the people I know in Nalchik. They are fine. Some of the fighting was too close for comfort to their residence. They reported continuing sporadic gunfire and explosions in pockets of the city. They stayed indoors, and will do so again today.