The crisis began when armed Islamic separatist militants, mostly Chechen Muslim, occupied School Number One (SNO) in the town of Beslan North Ossetia (an autonomous republic in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation ). The hostage-takers were the Riyadus-Salikhin Battalion , sent by the Chechen Muslim separatist warlord Shamil Basayev , who demanded recognition of the independence of Chechnya at the UN and Russian withdrawal from Chechnya. On the third day of the standoff, Russian security forces entered the building with the use of tanks, incendiary rockets, tanks incendiary rockets and other heavy weapons.