The terrorist organization "Islamic State" took responsibility for the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall shopping center near Moscow and called it "the most brutal attack in recent years." According to the latest data of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, 133 people died in the terrorist attack.
The SITE group, which monitors the activity of terrorists in social networks, drew attention to the statement issued on behalf of the Amaq agency, which is close to terrorists.
Four militants took part in the attack. They were armed with machine guns, pistols, knives and Molotov cocktails. They were monitoring the shopping center before the attack, the statement said.
The Islamic State also published a group photo of the alleged terrorists with their faces obscured.
As The Insider noticed, the color, cut and print on the clothes of the two people in the photo match the clothes of those who were detained by Russian law enforcement officers on suspicion of committing a terrorist attack. This was noticed by the OSINT community.
The statement indicates that three militants opened fire on people in the audience hall, and the fourth set fire to the premises. At least 300 people were killed or injured in the attack, and a large fire broke out at the site of the attack. At the same time, the statement adds that "the attack took place in the usual context of the raging war between the Islamic State and countries fighting against Islam."
The head of the FSB Oleksandr Bortnikov previously reported to Putin about the detention of 11 people, including four terrorists, who were probably involved in the attack on Crocus City Hall. The FSB claims that the alleged terrorists were detained in the Bryansk region "near the border with Ukraine." At the same time, the ambassador of Belarus to Russia, Dmytro Krutoy, said that the Belarusian special services helped Russia prevent the attackers from crossing the border. The ambassador did not specify which border — Russian-Ukrainian or Russian-Belarusian — was in question.
The video of the arrest of the suspect in the shooting, published by the Baza Telegram channel, was geolocated by a volunteer of the GeoConfirmed project. He claims that the video was shot on the Russian federal road "Ukraine". It is approximately 130 kilometers from the shooting location to the Ukrainian border, and 124 kilometers to the Belarusian-Russian border.
One of the suspects in the terrorist attack had his ear cut off. A video of the torture appeared on far-right Telegram channels — in the footage, a man in camouflage kneels the detainee, who is lying on his stomach, to the ground and shoves a piece of a severed ear into his mouth. Later, a video appeared on the Internet with the interrogation of this man — he introduced himself as Rajab Alizadeh. In this video, a man is sitting with his head bandaged and his clothes bloody.
What preceded
On the evening of March 22, 2024 , a shooting occurred in the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk near Moscow before the start of the performance of the band "Piknik". Four men entered the mall and started shooting everyone in their path. Terrorists started a fire in the concert hall, setting fire to the seats. After that, they fled in a car.
The FSB claims that the terrorists from Crocus City Hall planned to cross the Ukrainian-Russian border and had contacts on the Ukrainian side. Even on the day of the terrorist attack, the GUR declared that the attack near Moscow was a planned and deliberate provocation by the Russian special services, which would eventually end with accusations against Ukraine. Intelligence claimed that in this way Putin wants to justify even tougher strikes on Ukraine and total mobilization in the Russian Federation.
The New York Times, with reference to unnamed American officials, writes that the terrorist attack was organized by the Islamic State. US special services have gathered intelligence that "Vilayat Khorasan", an Afghan cell of IS, is planning a terrorist attack in Moscow. Washington passed this information on to Moscow. A source from the Russian state news agency TASS confirmed that the US shared data on the preparation of a terrorist attack, but allegedly "without specifics."
CBS News writes that the United States warned Russia about a terrorist attack and provided intelligence about a potential attack. A few days before the terrorist attack, Putin called these warnings "blackmail".