The ISIS terrorist group twice claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a concert in Moscow that left nearly 140 dead on Friday night.
The attack, in which four heavily armed terrorists entered the Crocus Town Hall on the western outskirts of Moscow at around 8 pm local time on Friday night and massacred dozens of festival-goers, was the deadliest carried out by ISIS against Russia in years.
The terrorist group said in a statement Saturday that the attack on the concert was part of the “raging war between the Islamic State and countries fighting against Islam.”
Russia has been in the crosshairs of ISIS for several years, having not forgiven Putin for supporting Syrian dictator Bashir al-Assad, who made a concerted effort to expel the terrorist group from the region, for more than a decade.
The terrorist group’s propagandists have claimed for years that Moscow is part of a broad Christian coalition that is engaged in a millennia-old battle against Islam.
In the attack, four heavily armed terrorists entered the Crocus Town Hall on the western outskirts of Moscow at around 8 pm local time on Friday night.
Muhammadsobir Fayzov (pictured, left) is a suspect in the shooting at Crocus City Hall on Friday.
Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda (pictured) is a suspect in the shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue.
Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev (pictured) sitting behind a glass wall of a defendants’ enclosure at the Basmanny district court in Moscow.
Shamsidin Fariduni (pictured) was arrested for his role in the attack.
During the 1970s and 1980s, mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan, who would later form Al-Qaeda, which in turn would lead to the creation of ISIS, waged a bloody war against the Soviet forces that had control over the nation.
Russia has also been developing its relationship with the Taliban, who currently control Afghanistan. The Taliban has long been in open conflict with ISIS in Afghanistan, with each side receiving support from smaller regional powers.
As a result, the ultraviolent ISIS sect believed to have carried out the attack, the Islamic State in Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K, in particular has focused on recruiting Central Asian militants, most of whom speak Russian, to carry out attacks.
ISIS-K, known for its extreme brutality, has for the past 18 months been on a major recruitment drive targeting experienced members of existing terrorist cells, according to a Report presented to the UN Security Council in January..
Many recruits are also Russian citizens, meaning they can easily go to cities across Russia, creating new opportunities to attack the nation.
ISIS-K has attacked Russia in the past, having claimed responsibility for the deadly 2022 suicide bombing at the Russian embassy in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, which killed two embassy staff and four other people. .
Earlier this month, Russia’s FSB said it foiled an ISIS-K attack on a Moscow synagogue, the country’s Tass news agency reported.
The attack was the deadliest carried out by ISIS against Russia in years
While Friday night’s attack was a dramatic escalation, experts say ISIS has opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.
An interior view of the Crocus City Hall concert venue after the shooting and fire.
While Friday night’s attack was a dramatic escalation, experts said the group has opposed Russian President Vladimir Putin in recent years.
“ISIS-K has been obsessed with Russia for the past two years, frequently criticizing Putin in its propaganda,” Colin Clarke of the Soufan Center, a New York-based research group, told Reuters.
Michael Kugelman of the Washington-based Wilson Center said ISIS-K “sees Russia as complicit in activities that regularly oppress Muslims.”
He added that the group also counts among its members several Central Asian militants who have their own grievances against Moscow.
ISIS-K also has a history of carrying out attacks around the world.
Earlier this year, U.S. intelligence intercepted communications confirming that the group carried out the two bombings in Iran that killed nearly 100 people during a memorial event for deceased military commander Qassem Soleimani.
And last year, a top U.S. commander told Congress that ISIS-K was rapidly developing its ability to conduct “external operations” in Europe and Asia.
A person looks at the Crocus City Hall concert hall after a terrorist attack.
The Friday night attack left almost 140 dead
Security personnel stand outside the Crocus City Hall concert venue.
Michael Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, said at the time that he believed Western interests could fall victim to an ISIS-K attack “in as little as six months and with little or no warning,” although he was quick to say that an attack within the United States itself was unlikely.
The UN report presented in January cited several foiled plots by ISIS-K to carry out terrorist attacks in Europe, including one in which seven Tajik, Turkmen and Kyrgyz individuals linked to the terrorist cell were arrested in Germany while planning to carry out carried out “high-impact terrorist attacks for which they were obtaining weapons and possible targets.
The name ISIS-K refers to an old term for the region that included parts of Iran, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
The group is led by Shahab al-Muhajir, an engineer by training and education, since 2020.
His name means ‘Shahab the Migrant’, in reference to the fact that he is the first non-Afghan, non-Pakistani person to lead ISIS-K.
A man suspected of involvement in the concert hall attack that killed 137 people, the deadliest attack in Europe claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group, is escorted by Russian law enforcement officers
The attack is believed to have been carried out by members of ISIS-K.
He reportedly spent time as a subcontractor for a security company in Afghanistan and is known to have spent some time at the US Bagram Airfield, formerly the largest US military base in Afghanistan.
al-Muhajir is one of three ISIS-K members on the list of people sanctioned under an anti-terrorism directive first established by George Bush in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, and renewed every year since then by the successive presidents.
The others are Sultan Aziz Azam, spokesman for the group, and Maulawi Rajab, a senior leader who “plans ISIS-K attacks and operations and directs ISIS-K groups that carry out attacks in Kabul,” according to the US State Department, which only sanctioned terrorists in November 2021.
Meanwhile, the UK did not sanction the three men until 2023. OFSI, the UK sanctions body, said it cited al-Muhajir’s responsibility “for multiple terrorist attacks resulting in hundreds of deaths in 2021” as a reason. of his punishment.