ISLAMIST ATTACK IN MOSCOW

139 DEAD AND THE "EI.K"

This Saturday morning, the Kremlin announced that it had arrested 4 alleged attackers, whom they accuse of being “in contact with Ukraine”. Ukraine has again denied being linked to the attack which left 115 dead in Moscow. The death toll from the attack claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) against a concert hall in the suburbs of Moscow on Friday rose to 115 dead and is expected to "rise further", the Russian Investigative Committee announced on Saturday. .

Investigators previously said the suspected perpetrators used "a flammable liquid" to set the concert hall on fire. Investigators say they seized “automatic weapons” during this assault.

The Islamic State of Khorasan ?

It is not yet known whether the perpetrators belong to the terrorist group of the Islamic State of Khorasan, “EI-K”, considered the “most bloodthirsty in Afghanistan”, according to a note published in 2021 by the French Institute of Relations. International (IFRI). Khorasan means “where the sun comes from” in Persian. This is the medieval name for Afghanistan, which at the time included parts of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Russia is its main target. “IS-K has been fixated on Russia for two years, frequently criticizing President Vladimir Putin in its propaganda,” Colin P. Clarke, a counterterrorism analyst at the Soufan Group, a security consulting firm based in Washington, told the American media. New York. The terrorist group considers that “the Kremlin has Muslim blood on its hands” since Russian interventions in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Syria.

In September 2022, the terrorist group claimed responsibility for the suicide attack against the Russian embassy in Kabul. They are also behind an attack which left 84 dead in Iran last January.

Last Tuesday in Germany, two suspected Afghan jihadists were arrested on suspicion of planning an attack on the Swedish Parliament. One of them is believed to be a member of EI-K. The group is therefore no less in the sights of Western authorities. The United States had also warned Russia of a possible attack.

The Kremlin, for its part, announced the arrest of eleven people, including the “four” attackers. “The director of the FSB, Mr. (Alexander) Bortnikov, informed Mr. Putin of the arrest of 11 people, including the four terrorists directly involved in the attack,” the presidency told Russian news agencies.

Furthermore, according to Russian media and MP Alexandre Khinstein, some of the arrested suspects are from Tajikistan. The authorities of this Central Asian country said they had “not received confirmation from the Russian authorities regarding the false information currently circulating on the involvement of Tajik citizens.”

On a day of national mourning,

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Sunday March 24 would be a day of national mourning, in a television speech broadcast the day after the attack, which he described as a "bloody and barbaric terrorist act." which left 115 dead near Moscow, “peaceful and innocent people, (…) including children, adolescents, women”. “I express my most sincere and deep condolences to those who lost their loved ones,” he said.

The Russian leader had not yet spoken publicly about the terrorist attack against the Crocus City Hall – a huge concert hall located in Krasnogorsk, a suburb near Moscow –, the deadliest in the country in twenty years.