Terrorists Clash With Police in Russia

A quick update on the clashes with terrorists in Russia that Hugh referenced earlier. Some are reporting that police there may have thwarted a repeat of the Beslan school attack.

From the BBC:

Twelve militants and seven Russian policemen have died in a clash in the southern Stavropol region, Russian security officials say. The fighting erupted on Thursday in Tukui-Mekteb, a village just north of Chechnya in the North Caucasus...

Russian officials say the rebels belonged to a militant group called Shelkovskoy Jamaat, named after an area in northern Chechnya.

According to a local police chief, the heavily-armed militants had planned to seize a school. Some of them are reported to have escaped.

The BBC calls them militants. The AP calls them rebels. The Hindustan Times actually calls them terrorists.