Drug addiction among the Beslan terrorists

The results of a forensic analysis showed that 31 Islamist militants who seized a &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/96/382/14104_video.html ' target=_blank>school in Beslan last month and killed at least 330 people were drug addicts, a law enforcement official told Russian news agencies.

Blood tests showed high levels of &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/cis/2003/03/13/44352.html ' target=_blank>heroin and morphine in most of the militants, who were killed when federal forces and angry parents stormed the school at the end of a three-day hostage drama.

The tests "indicate that they were long-term drug addicts and had been using drugs permanently while preparing for the terrorist attack," Nikolai Shepel, deputy prosecutor general of Russia’s southern federal district, was quoted as saying by Interfax.

Their extreme brutality could also have been spurred on by the fact that some of them had run out of drugs.