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On Friday, just hours after the terrorist attack on Croco City Halla popular concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, the Islamic state took responsibility for the massacre. This Monday, the authorities’ latest report shows at least 137 deaths and 182 injuries. This is the worst attack that has occurred in Russia in the last 20 years.
Specifically, the Islamic State of Khorasan (ISIS-K)a subsidiary of central command, claimed responsibility for the attack through publications on Amaqthe terrorist group’s propaganda agency, and on Telegram.
LOOK: What was the Islamic State attack on Crocus City Hall in Moscow, which left more than 130 people dead?
According to official information and videos of what happened, at 8pm (local time) on Friday armed men invaded the Crocus City Hall Concert Hallwhere people waited to watch the Piknik group concert. Around 6,200 tickets were sold, so the place was almost full. The terrorists entered and opened fire. Then they continued killing in the shopping mall that is part of the building.
The attackers wore camouflage clothing and carried automatic weapons and incendiary devices with which they set fire to the Croco City Hall.
On Friday the Islamic state I made a small post about Amak where responsibility for the attack was claimed, without explanation of the motivation.
The next day, Saturday, Islamic state posted an image on Amaq showing the four men who attacked the complex. None of them were identifiable, as everyone was wearing balaclavas and the rest of their faces were blurred.
On Sunday, the Islamic state posted an explicit one and a half minute video of his brutal terrorist attack.
The video, edited and with a distorted voice, carried a message in Arabic that said “exclusive images for the agency Amak “which show moments of the bloody attack on Christians yesterday in Moscow.”
In the chilling video you can see one of the terrorists fire an automatic weapon through a door and end up with at least one person down. Behind the door you can see a corridor where you can also see several fallen people and blood.
Then, Another terrorist armed with a knife approaches an injured man who is lying on the ground and cuts his neck several times.and then address the camera and give a speech.
Russia reported on Saturday that it had arrested 11 suspects, including the four material authors of the attack that appear in the filming videos.
The four appeared before a judge on Sunday with visible signs of torture. Three pleaded guilty, while the fourth, who was in a wheelchair, was unable to speak. The court ordered two months of preventive detention for them. If found guilty, they could be sentenced to life in prison.
At this point, it is worth explaining what ISIS-K is and why it attacked Russia.
The Islamic State of Khorasan (ISIS-K) was officially born at the end of 2014, when he swore allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadithen top leader of the Islamic State who In June of that year, he proclaimed an Islamic caliphate in Iraq and Syria.
Islamic State-K emerged in the east of Afghanistancountry where it is currently based, and quickly gained a reputation for extreme brutality. They are enemies of the Talibanwho returned to power in 2021, coinciding with the withdrawal of United States troops who had been in the country since 2001.
As for its objectives, the Islamic State-K intends to reestablish its own caliphate in Central Asia, in a historical region called “Khorasan”, halfway between Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, explains the AFP agency.
In 2021, the United Nations calculated that the Islamic State-K would have between 500 and several thousand fighters in Afghanistanmainly in the north and east of the country, and has cells in Kabul.
Since 2020 it has been directed by the mysterious Shahab al Muhajir, for whose leader the United States offers a reward of 10 million dollars.
According to United States Department of JusticeIn June 2020, the Islamic State’s central leadership appointed Shahab al-Muhajiralso known as Sanaullah Ghafarileader of Islamic State-K.
Born in 1994 in Afghanistan, Al Muhajir is responsible for approving all operations of the Islamic State-K and obtain financing to carry out terrorist actions.
“The armed group became in a few years a conglomerate of former jihadist organizations, among them Uighurs and Uzbeks, or Taliban defectors”, explained Jean-Luc Marret, researcher at the Foundation for Strategic Research, to the AFP agency.
By 2020, the Islamic State-K It was an organization that was in decline, explains AFP. The terrorist organization’s leadership was decimated by American attacks.
But the arrival of Al Muhajir “This led to a radical change for the organization, which went from being a fragmented and weakened network to becoming the feared phalanx that it is today,” Abedul Sabed, an expert on security issues in the Middle East, told AFP.
Under his leadership, underground fighters “emphasized urban warfare and symbolic violence,” Sabed continued.
He Islamic State-K has a long history of attacks inside and outside Afghanistan. Among its targets are even mosques.
In 2021, the Islamic State-K claimed responsibility for more than 220 attacks in Afghanistanincluding three deadly suicide attacks since the Taliban returned to power: against Kabul airporta mosque in the capital and another Shiite mosque in Kunduz.
The airport attack in August 2021, when U.S was withdrawing from the country, leaving more than 100 dead, including 13 American soldiers. While the one in Kunduz ended the lives of 55 people.
In September 2022, militants from Islamic State-K They claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul.
At the beginning of this year, U.S intercepted communications confirming that ISIS-K perpetrated two bomb attacks in Iran in which almost 100 people died.
This month, the top US general in the Middle East warned that Islamic State-K could attack American and Western interests outside Afghanistan “in just six months and with little or no warning.”
Regarding your relationship with the TalibanBoth organizations are Sunni and at times fought together, but are currently enemies. The Taliban remain in the territory of AfghanistanMeanwhile he ISIS-K seeks to internationalize holy warexplains AFP.
He Islamic State-K also accuses the Taliban of having “sold to the Americans”.
According to The Conversation, if the Islamic State-K is really responsible for Moscow’s attack, the West must prepare for new attack attempts, not just in Russiabut in all Europe.
Why did it fall to Russia this time? How does he Islamic state like him Islamic State-K They have long proclaimed their intention to attack Russia.
As for motivation, the terrorists mentioned the military occupation of Afghanistan on the part of Russia in the 1980s and its long history of repression of Muslim communities in Russiaespecially in the North Caucasus.
They also cited the paper Russia as the greatest ally of the brutal regime Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which the Russians saved during the civil war, when opposing factions already controlled large swaths of territory.
Conversa recalled that the Islamic state has carried out several attacks on Russia between 2016 and 2019, while several plans were frustrated between 2021 and 2023.
Furthermore, many of the militants Islamic State-K detained across Europe, including Russiain the last two years they were Russian citizens and people from Central Asia with ties to Russia.
Daniel Byman, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The Washington Post on Monday that “Russia has long been an enemy of the broad Islamic movementwhich dates back to the anti-Soviet struggle in the 1980s.
Furthermore, he added that support for the Chechens against Russia in the 1990s and 2000s It was a “cause célèbre among jihadists”.
“In the following years, many jihadists from Caucasus It is Central Asia They went to the area Afghanistan-Pakistanwhere they mixed with what is now Islamic State-Kgiving the group an anti-Russian vision from its inception, as well as networks in Russia itself,” Byman added.
The Washington Post recalled that during the long military intervention of Russia in Syriathe Russian president Vladimir Putin repeatedly denounced the Islamic state like an enemy and proclaimed victory over the terrorist group in 2017.
Last year, confidential US military documents leaked on Discord pointed to U.S. conspiracies. Islamic State-K to attack several countries, including Sweden, Türkiye and Russia, the Washington Post indicated.
Although US authorities linked US militants to Islamic State-K with at least 15 specific plans to attack embassies, churches, business centers and the FIFA World Cup, which attracted millions of spectators to Qatar in 2022.
Source: Elcomercio
I am Jack Morton and I work in 24 News Recorder. I mostly cover world news and I have also authored 24 news recorder. I find this work highly interesting and it allows me to keep up with current events happening around the world.
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