Note to Potential Terrorists

[Buff]

If you're strapping explosives to your body, you're likely not too bright to begin with, but I still feel the need to offer this advice: Don't give detonation control of the device you're wearing to someone else.

The militants who raided a school in southern Russia last week were led by a man dubbed the Colonel, who enforced obedience by killing three fellow attackers — two by detonating the explosives they had strapped to their bodies.

The approximately 30 attackers, including two women, had gathered in a forest early on the morning of Sept. 1 and arrived at School No. 1 in Beslan in a military-type truck and two jeeps, packed with weapons and ammunition, Ustinov said.

They herded people who had gathered to mark the first day of school to the gym. Some of the militants objected to seizing a school, and their leader, who went by the name Colonel, shot one of them. He said he would do the same to any other militants or hostages who did not show "unconditional obedience."

Later that day, he detonated the explosives worn by two female attackers, killing them, to enforce the lesson, Ustinov said.