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24-03-2024
CAIRO/ MOSCOW: Islamic State (Daesh/ IS) released on Saturday a photo of what it said were the four attackers behind a shooting rampage that killed at least 143 people in a concert hall near Moscow on Friday, the terrorist group’s Amaq news agency said on Telegram.
The publication noted that the attackers were armed with grenades, explosive devices, firearms, and knives. It was also reported that four ISIS terrorists carried out the attack, three of them were firing shots with firearms, while the fourth used explosives at the scene, Ynet reported.
“The attack comes within the context of a raging war between the Islamic State and countries fighting Islam,” Amaq added in a statement citing security sources.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack but there were indications that Russia was pursuing a Ukrainian link, despite empathic denials from Ukrainian officials that Kyiv had anything to do with it.
Russian authorities said on Saturday they had arrested 11 people including four suspected gunmen in connection with the attack.
Although US officials have confirmed to several media outlets that ISIS is behind the attack, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) insists that the terrorists have ties to Ukraine.
Putin cast the enemy as “international terrorism” and said that he was ready to work with any state that wanted to defeat it.
“All the perpetrators, organizers and those who ordered this crime will be justly and inevitably punished. Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them,” Putin said. “We will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this strike against Russia, against our people.”
A senior Russian lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, said that if Ukraine was involved, then Russia must deliver a “worthy, clear and concrete” reply on the battlefield.
Verified footage from Friday’s attack showed camouflage-clad gunmen opening fire with automatic weapons at concert-goers in the Crocus City Hall near the capital. Video showed people taking their seats, then rushing for the exits as repeated gunfire echoed above screams.
Investigators said some died from gunshot wounds and others in a huge fire that broke out in the complex. Reports said the gunmen had lit the blaze using petrol from canisters they carried in rucksacks.
People fled in panic. Baza, a news outlet with good contacts in Russian security and law enforcement, said 28 bodies were found in a toilet and 14 on a staircase. “Many mothers were found embracing their children,” it said.
Russian lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein said the attackers had fled in a Renault vehicle that was spotted by police in Bryansk region, about 340 km (210 miles) southwest of Moscow on Friday night. He said a car chase ensued after they disobeyed orders to stop.
India has deployed at least a dozen warships east of the Red Sea to provide security against pirates and has investigated more than 250 vessels as Western powers focus on attacks by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, Indian officials said.
India has not joined the US-led task force for the Red Sea and does not have any warships there but it currently has two frontline warships in the Gulf of Aden and at least 10 warships in the northern and western Arabian Sea, along with surveillance aircraft, the officials said. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
