View of the capital of Russia, Moscow at dusk.

Moscow concert hall massacre: Islamic State claims to be behind worst attack in Russia in 20 years

The attack perpetrated this Friday by the radical Islamist group Islamic State in Russia, which has caused at least 133 dead and more than a hundred wounded, is the worst that this country has suffered in the last 20 years.

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Of the 133 fatalities in Friday’s terrorist attack on a concert hall in the Moscow region there are at least three children, according to official data. According to Russian investigators, the cause of death of the concert attendees, where the tragedy occurred, are gunshot wounds and smoke poisoning from the fire set by the attackers.

Currently, 107 of the 140 injured in the attack, which was claimed Friday night by the Islamic State, are in hospitals in Moscow and the Moscow region. According to health sources, 44 victims of the attack, including two children, are in serious condition.

It was the Amaq agency, the propaganda organ of the Muslim organization, which spread the authorship of the attack. “Islamic State fighters attacked a large grouping of Christians in the city of Krasnogorsk, on the outskirts of the Russian capital, Moscow, and killed and wounded hundreds of people and caused great destruction at the site before retreating to their bases safely,” Amaq broadcast on Telegram.

After the flames were extinguished at the Crocus City Hall concert hall, the security forces continue this Saturday “with the inspection of the premises and the seizure of material evidence” and the study of the recordings of the CCTV cameras that captured the shooting. The Russian Investigative Committee has confirmed that the attackers used during the attack “a flammable liquid to set fire to the concert hall premises” while shooting at spectators with automatic weapons that “have been discovered and seized by investigators.”

According to the Russian government, 11 suspects were detained in the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine. According to Russian security services, the terrorists intended to cross the border into Ukraine and maintained “contacts” with representatives of that country. “After the terrorist attack, the criminals intended to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border and had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side,” the Federal Security Service (FSB) has said in a statement. “The investigation into the terrorist attack is continuing,” it has added. However, Ukraine assured the day before that it “has nothing to do” with the attack committed on Friday on the outskirts of Moscow, something that was also made by Russian volunteers fighting on the Ukrainian side who recently staged several raids on the Russian territory.

Friday’s attack comes a day after the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing near the offices of a bank in southern Afghanistan that killed at least 23 people and injured 60 others.

Until Friday’s, the worst terrorist attack suffered by the Russian capital in recent decades occurred on October 23, 2002 when a group of Chechen terrorists stormed the Dubrovka Theater and took some 700 people hostage.

During the rescue operation on October 26 of that year, 129 hostages were killed by inhalation of a gas used by the Russian Army in the operation and 41 terrorists were killed by special forces.

-Thailand News (TN)

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