Tass reports the Russian Investigative Committee has announced that the death toll from Friday’s shooting and arson terror attack at the Crocus City Hall has risen to 133.
41 people have been identified and named as killed by the ministry of health. 107 people are in hospital.
A claim of responsibility by Islamic State for a massacre of Russian concertgoers near Moscow appears to be plausible and fits with a pattern of previous marauding attacks by Islamist militants, security analysts said on Saturday, Reuters reports.
One leading expert said, however, it was unusual and striking that the assailants had formed and executed an escape plan instead of pursuing their rampage to the point of being gunned down.
Adam Dolnik, a Czech security expert who has studied past Islamist attacks in India, Kenya, Russia and elsewhere, said the Islamic State claim appeared credible, although “that will not stop the Russians from leveraging this for their foreign policy agenda vis-a-vis Ukraine and the West”.
Dolnik said in a telephone interview that attacks by marauding gunmen were a typical modus operandi in recent years for IS and al Qaeda.
He noted Islamic State has a record of previous attacks against Russia, including the bombing of a 2015 flight from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to St Petersburg and a 2022 attack on the Russian embassy in Kabul. Earlier this month, Russia’s FSB said it foiled an attack on a Moscow synagogue by ISIS-K, an affiliate of the group.
If you line up all these things together, then I think it’s completely conceivable that this would be an IS attack,” he said.
The one element that was unusual was that the perpetrators had made their escape, he said.
The United States strongly condemns the attack by armed men near Moscow on Friday that killed at least 143 people and injured many dozens more, the US secretary of state Antony Blinken said on Saturday, Reuters reports:
We send our deepest condolences to the families and loved ones of those killed and all affected by this heinous crime. We condemn terrorism in all its forms and stand in solidarity with the people of Russia in grieving the loss of life from this horrific event.
Blinken is currently in the Middle East trying, so far without success, to help broker some form of a ceasefire in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza and the release of hostages still held by Hamas in the Palestinian territory it controls.
In videos and eyewitness accounts, a picture of terror and confusion emerges as the men burst into the concert hall firing automatic weapons, shooting at point-blank range into prone bodies, then stalked through Crocus City Hall on Moscow’s outskirts for nearly an hour as panicked concertgoers scrambled through the bowels of the building to find a way out.
“I saw a tall man in camouflage,” Alexander, a witness in the concert hall, told Russian state media. “They didn’t say anything. They just started shooting at the people in front of them.”
Astonishingly, many people in the hall pulled out their mobile phones and caught footage of the gunmen methodically firing into the crowds, as well as the panicked reactions of others fleeing for the exits. “Put your phone away and crawl!” one man can be heard screaming in footage posted online, as the gunmen fire into the crowds below the balcony. Some on the lower levels had to crawl out past the dead and wounded.
Yulia Kharitonova and her boyfriend were late to the concert by Piknik, a Russian rock band formed in Leningrad in the 1970s. As they rushed into the hall just after 8pm, the gunmen opened fire.
“It turns out they were right behind us,” she told the Astra Telegram channel. “We came in … and there were not many people there. [The attackers] shot and ran to where there were more people. I was shot in the shoulder, my boyfriend was hit in the arms and legs.
“A woman with a bullet through her temple fell right next to me,” she continued. “A cheerful woman was selling tickets at the entrance, and then we ran away, and she was lying with these tickets with a bullet in her head. I still have this picture in front of my eyes. We ran over the bodies through the same doors [we came in through], we already heard sirens, the police and ambulances were coming.”
The Guardian is about to publish a report gathered from eyewitnesses to the attack, claimed by Islamic State, on a concert on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night that killed 133 people.
Here’s an extract:
The girl lies in a hospital bed, staring straight toward the ceiling. The left side of her face is swollen, her left arm wrapped in gauze.
In a preternaturally calm voice, she speaks on camera of how the gunmen in the Crocus City concert hall spotted her and a small group of people as they fled the carnage of the worst terror attack on Russian soil in decades.
“They saw us,” she told RT, a Russian state-funded news agency. “One of them ran back and started shooting at people. I fell to the floor and pretended to be dead. I was bleeding,” she said, pointing at her temple.
The gunmen opened fire into some of the bodies as they lay on the ground, she said.
“The girl lying next to me was killed.”
The gunmen then set fire to the hall, apparently hoping to kill all those left inside.
“Then the flames flared up. They closed the front door, but they probably couldn’t close the lock,” said the woman, who did not give her name. “I was lying under the door, breathing air. After some time, I crawled out, three minutes passed, maybe four. I looked around, crawled to the exit. I realised that there was no one there and went outside.”
The group that has claimed responsibility for the attack on the concert hall in Russia on Friday night, Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), also claimed it carried out the attack on a crowd in Kerman in southern Iran in January.
That occurred during the marking of the anniversary of the killing of Qassem Suleimani, the Iranian senior Revolutionary Guards commander, during the administration of US president Donald Trump.
At least 84 people died in that attack when two blasts ripped through the crowd near Suleimani’s tomb four years after he was killed by a US drone strike in Baghdad. Suleimani had been a staunch enemy of IS, which resents the damage he did to its cause in Iraq and Syria.
ISKP was also behind another suicide bomb attack at Kabul airport, Afghanistan, in August 2021, killing 170 Afghans and 13 US troops, in the process of carrying out the retreat from the country ordered by the US president, Joe Biden, a few months earlier. Its focus may have been Russia on Friday, but less than three years ago it was US forces.
Last year, leaks from US intelligence showed that ISKP, based in Afghanistan, was conducting “aspirational plotting” in the US, Europe and Asia, with targets such as the last World Cup in Qatar. Whatever the west’s wider relationship with Moscow, counter-terror investigators know it is time to be particularly vigilant.
It was a warning that proved grimly prophetic. Just over two weeks ago, as Russia’s presidential election was reaching its final stages, the US embassy in Moscow said it was “monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts” over the ensuing 48 hours.
The unusually clear public alert was repeated by the UK, which reiterated its longstanding advice, warning British citizens against going to Russia. As a close ally in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, Britain will have seen whatever raw intelligence the US warning was based on, most likely intercepted communications.
No attack came within that timeframe, but it is now tragically clear the respite was only temporary. Friday night’s terrorist attack by a group of gunmen on crowds attending a pop concert on the outskirts of Moscow has left at least 133 dead and 140 wounded, responsibility for which was claimed by Islamic State.
Whether more details underpinning the warning were passed from the US to their Russian counterparts is unclear, given the two countries are engaged in a proxy war in Ukraine, nor is it certain the alert would have been well-received. But it is an uncomfortable reminder that large-scale terror attacks have not gone away.
Full report here.
The Five Eyes is a longstanding intelligence-sharing coalition of the US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Russia’s claim that Ukraine is involved in the Friday attack on the outskirts of Moscow “lacks credibility”.
An online information agency close to the Islamic State, the Amaq agency, has published a photograph of what it claims are the four attackers in the Crocus City Hall terrorist assault, according to The Insider, a news outlet based in Riga, Latvia, that covers Russian news and keeps a gimlet eye on Russian propaganda and fake news.
The Insider team said they examined images of two suspects and compared their outfits to the picture put out by Amaq, and reports the following, which we’ve used Google Translate to interpret:
As The Insider was able to notice, the color, cut and print on the clothes of two of them coincides with the clothes of those detained on suspicion of committing a terrorist attack. Earlier, the head of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, reported to Putin about the detention of 11 people, including all four terrorists allegedly directly involved in the terrorist attack at Crocus. Telegram channels published a photo of one of the detained suspects. According to preliminary data, we are talking about 19-year-old native of Dushanbe Muhammadsobir Fayzov. During his arrest, he was wounded in the eye and is now undergoing surgery.
State Duma deputy Alexander Khinshtein reported earlier that the Renault car in which the suspects were driving was discovered at night near the village of Khatsun, Karachevsky district, Bryansk region. The car did not stop at the request of law enforcement officers and tried to escape. Margarita Simonyan [editor-in-chief of the state-controlled broadcast channel RT and described by Newsweek as a “Kremlin propagandist”] published an interrogation of one of the detainees. The man’s clothing also matches that of one of the militants in the photograph published by the Amaq agency.
As a reminder of some Russia-related news from Friday and its ties to the latest developments in Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, here are a few points and a link to the other liveblog the Guardian is running on its site at the moment.
The surprise US resolution introduced at the United Nations Security Council in New York on Friday morning, urging a ceasefire in Gaza linked to a hostage deal, was vetoed by Russia, as well as China, meaning that with veto powers, the resolution was not adopted.
This extended the five-month impasse in the international body over the Israel-Gaza war, which has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians. Read a full news report here from my Washington colleague Julian Borger and analysis from my London colleague Patrick Wintour.
On Saturday, the UN secretary general António Guterres said the world had seen enough of the horrors in Gaza and appealed for a ceasefire to allow in more aid.
He spoke at the crossing on the Egyptian side of Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has sought refuge, but Israel has vowed to send in ground troops against Hamas militants, despite the fears of Guterres and other global leaders.
“Palestinians in Gaza – children, women, men – remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare,” Guterres said. “I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough”.
Our global team is following news developments out of Gaza and the Middle East and you can read that as it happens here.
The Guardian has compiled a new, short video summarising the news of the terrorist attack on the outskirts of Moscow on Friday night.
It’s carefully edited but, to warn readers, still contains the sound of shots from high-powered guns the attackers are believed to have carried, and shows the terrible blaze and aftermath inside the concert hall, which was brought under control by around midnight local time.
The Islamic State (IS) jihadist group said on Saturday that four of its militants carried out an attack on a concert hall in a Moscow suburb that Russian authorities said killed at least 133 people and used firebombs amongst its weapons, the Agence-France Presse (AFP) reports. IS said on one of its Telegram channels:
The attack was carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and firebombs.
The militant group said its fighters killed “dozens of Christians” as part of its “raging war” with countries it said were fighting Islam.
The jihadists had already said on Friday night they carried out the attack, and claimed their fighters had “returned to base safely”.
This contradicts the assertions of Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin, which has not reacted to the militant group’s claim, said 11 people had been arrested “including four terrorists” involved in the attack.
Russia is fighting IS in Syria and the jihadist group has also had a presence in the Muslim-majority Russian republics of Ingushetia, Dagestan and Chechnya.
The group has carried out attacks in Russia but has never before said it was behind such a major atrocity.
The four suspected gunmen detained after a deadly attack on a concert hall near Moscow are all foreign citizens, Russia’s interior ministry said on Saturday, Reuters reports.
Russia said it had arrested all four gunmen suspected of carrying out the shooting massacre, and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, pledged to track down and punish those behind the attack.
There is still little detail on this, so do stay tuned.
The Russian interior ministry is issuing a statement saying that the attackers in the Moscow concert hall tragedy are “not Russian citizens”.
This latest line is just emerging and we’ll have more for you in a moment.
The Reuters news agency is releasing details.
US intelligence gathered intelligence just this month that ISPK, a branch of the Islamic State group based in Afghanistan, was eyeing Russia for a terrorist attack, the New York Times has reported, citing unnamed US officials.
The outlet goes on to explain that IS has been relatively quiet until recently but has been stepping up efforts to launch attacks on anti-Islamist targets in Europe and beyond. Some plots had been thwarted, leaving experts to believe that IS had diminished scope, until now.
Referring to the ISPK as ISIS-K, the New York Times quotes an analyst who said that IS has been critical of Vladimir Putin and Russian propaganda.
Colin Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York, told the New York Times:
ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years [and] accuses the Kremlin of having Muslim blood in its hands, referencing Moscow’s interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.
The US team has now taken this blog from our colleagues in London and we’ll keep you up to date with the news from Russia as it develops and reaches us.
Vladimir Putin has told the Russian people that Ukraine is linked to the Crocus City Hall terror attack on Friday night that killed at least 133 people. In a video address lasting five-and-a-half minutes, the newly relected Russian president said Russian security forces believed they had apprehended all four direct participants in the attack, who were caught heading for Ukraine, which was preparing to receive them over the border. Kyiv has rubbished the claims. 11 people have been detained in total.
Islamic State has claimed it carried out the attack, something which Putin did not mention in his address. He described it as a “bloody, barbaric terrorist act”, Putin said the victims were “dozens of peaceful, innocent people - our compatriots, including children, teenagers, and women”. He said the Russian Federation would “identify and punish everyone who prepared the terrorist attack”.
Ukraine has denied any link to the attack. Presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said attempts to connect the two were “absolutely untenable”. He said “Ukraine has not the slightest connection to this incident. Ukraine has a full-scale war with Russia and will solve the problem of Russia’s aggression on the battlefield”. Neither Putin nor the FSB publicly presented any proof of a link with Ukraine.
107 people remain in hospital after the attack, including three children, one of whom is described as being in critical condition. After a drive to receive blood donations in Moscow, deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova said “there is enough medicine, blood, and dressing materials”. Moscow authorities have said they will pay compensation to those affected, and arrange funerals for those killed.
Putin has declared Sunday 24 March a day of national mourning. People have been laying flowers and toys as a tribute to the victims at the site of the attack, and alos outside Russian embassies all around the world.
Images from inside the venue show that the auditorium has been completely gutted by fire and the roof has collapsed. Russian authorities say people died both from gunshot wounds and the effects of the fire.
The terrorist attack has been widely condemned around the world. Notwithstanding tensions caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Britain’s foreign secretary, Ursula von der Leyen, Emmanuel Macron and Nato have been among those condemning the attack and offering condolences. Putin spoke to the leaders of Belarus and Uzbekistan by phone. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also offered his support, saying terrorism is “the common enemy of humanity”
Tass reports the Russian Investigative Committee has announced that the death toll from Friday’s shooting and arson terror attack at the Crocus City Hall has risen to 133.
41 people have been identified and named as killed by the ministry of health. 107 people are in hospital.
The Russian Embassy in the UK has posted a thank you message to those who have left flowers in London as a tribute to the victims of yesterday’s attack.
RIA has published a short video clip of a medical press conference talking about the condition of those in hospital. In it, deputy prime minister Tatyana Golikova announced:
At this point in time, there are 107 patients in medical institutions. Of these, three are children, one child is in critical condition, two children are in serious condition.
Among the adults, 15 are in extremely serious condition, 42 are in serious condition. We actively interact with all medical institutions.
We provide and continue to provide the necessary medical care to everyone. Once again I want to emphasise that there is enough medicine, blood, and dressing materials.
Russian authorities have issued some more pictures from inside the Crocus City Hall as investigations and a clean-up operation continue.
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2024-03-23 16:47:51Z
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