- विज्ञापन -
Moscow: The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the massive attack on concert hall in the Russian capital that left at least 60 people dead and over 100 wounded, CNN reported.
A group of armed men stormed into Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow and opened fire and detonated explosives among the crowd on Friday (local time).
The terror group took responsibility for the attack in a short statement published by ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq on Telegram on Friday. However, ISIS has not provided any evidence to support the claim.
Video footage from the site of the attack, the Crocus City Hall concert venue on fire with smoke billowing into the air. It showed crowds of people huddling together, screaming and ducking behind cushioned seats as gunshots started echoing in the vast hall.
State-run RIA Novosti reported the armed individuals “opened fire with automatic weapons” and “threw a grenade or an incendiary bomb, which started a fire.” They then “allegedly fled in a white Renault car,” the news agency said.
The claim by the Islamic State was also confirmed by US officials shortly afterwards, the New York Times reported. The US officials said they had privately apprised Russian officials about the intelligence pointing to an impending attack, the New York Times reported.
The United States collected intelligence in March that Islamic State-Khorasan, known as ISIS-K, the branch of the group based in Afghanistan, had been planning an attack on Moscow, according to officials. ISIS members have been active in Russia, a US official said.
After a period of relative quiet, the Islamic State has been trying to increase its external attacks, according to US counterterrorism officials. Most of those plots in Europe have been thwarted, prompting assessments that the group has diminished capabilities.
The attack on Friday in Moscow, followed by the one in Iran in January, could prompt a reassessment of its ability to strike outside its home territory, according to the NYT.
“ISIS-K has been fixated on Russia for the past two years,” frequently criticising President Vladimir Putin in its propaganda, said Colin P Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in New York
