Moscow concert hall attack: death toll rises to 133

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian authorities have arrested four men suspected of carrying out an attack on a suburban concert hall in Moscow that killed at least 133 people, President Putin said in a speech to the nation on Saturday. He claimed they were captured while fleeing to Ukraine.

Kyiv has strongly denied any involvement in Friday’s attack on Krasnogorsk’s Krokos Town Hall concert hall, for which the Islamic State group’s Afghan affiliate claimed responsibility.

Putin did not mention the Islamic State in his speech, and Kyiv has accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the attack to fan enthusiasm for Russia’s recent war in Ukraine. Entering its third year.

U.S. intelligence officials confirmed claims by an Islamic State affiliate that it was responsible for the attack, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The U.S. official said U.S. intelligence agencies had gathered information in recent weeks that U.S. officials privately shared with Russian officials earlier this month that an Islamic State affiliate was planning attacks in Moscow. The official was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to discuss intelligence information publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Putin said authorities detained a total of 11 people in the attack, which also injured more than 100 concertgoers and turned the venue in Moscow’s Western Ring into a smoking ruin. He called it a “bloody, brutal act of terror” and said Russian authorities captured four suspected gunmen as they tried to escape to Ukraine through a “window” prepared for them on the Ukrainian side.

Russian media showed footage apparently showing the detention and interrogation of suspects, with one suspect telling cameras that an unidentified assistant to an Islamic preacher contacted him via a messaging app and paid to take part in the raid.

Russian news reports said the gunman was a citizen of Tajikistan, a predominantly Muslim former Soviet republic in Central Asia that borders Afghanistan. As many as 1.5 million Tajiks work in Russia, many of whom hold Russian citizenship.

Tajikistan’s foreign ministry denied initial reports in Russian media that several other Tajiks were allegedly involved in the attack, but did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday’s arrests.

Many Russian hard-liners have called for a crackdown on Tajik immigrants, but Putin appeared to reject the idea, saying “no force can sow poisonous seeds of discord, panic or disunity in our multi-ethnic society.”

He declared Sunday a day of mourning and said extra security measures were implemented across Russia.

This attack Russia’s deadliest This has been a major embarrassment for the Russian leader for years, and it happened just days after he came to power. consolidated his control The vote gave the country another six years in office amid its harshest crackdown on dissent since the Soviet era.

Some commentators on Russian social media questioned why authorities, which ruthlessly suppress any opposition activity and silence independent media, failed to prevent the attacks despite warnings from the United States.

The attack came two weeks after the U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a notice urging Americans to avoid crowded places because of “imminent” plans by extremists to target large gatherings in Moscow, including concerts. Several other Western embassies repeated the warning. Earlier this week, Putin denounced the warning as an attempt to intimidate Russians.

Investigators searched the charred remains of the hall for more victims Saturday, and authorities said the death toll could still rise. Russia’s health ministry said hundreds of people lined up in Moscow to donate blood and plasma.

Putin claimed the attackers were trying to flee to Ukraine, following comments from Russian lawmakers in the immediate aftermath of the attack pointing the finger at Ukraine. But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser Mykhaylo Podolak denied having anything to do with it.

“Ukraine has never resorted to terror,” he posted on X. “Everything in this war will be decided on the battlefield.”

Ukraine’s foreign ministry accused Moscow of using the attack to try to drum up support for its war effort.

“We consider such accusations to be a planned provocation by the Kremlin to further fuel anti-Ukrainian hysteria in Russian society, create conditions for greater mobilization of Russian citizens to participate in criminal aggression against our country, and to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the international community. community,” the ministry said in a statement.

Images shared by Russian state media showed emergency vehicles still gathering outside the ruins of Krokus City Hall, which can accommodate more than 6,000 people and has hosted many large events, including the 2013 Miss Universe beauty pageant. Donald Trump.

Crowds gathered at the venue for a picnic concert by a Russian rock band on Friday.

Videos posted online showed gunmen shooting at civilians at close range at the venue. Russian news reports quoted authorities and witnesses as saying attackers threw explosive devices that started a fire that eventually burned down the building and caused its roof to collapse.

Dave Primov, who survived the attack, told The Associated Press that the gunman “shot directly into the row of people.” He described the chaos in the hall as concertgoers scrambled to escape: “People started to panic, started running and bumping into each other. Some fell, some were trampled.”

After he and others climbed out of the lobby into a nearby utility room, he said he heard the crackle of small explosives and smelled something burning as the attackers set fire to the building. When they left the massive building 25 minutes later, it was engulfed in flames.

“If it had been any longer, we would have been trapped in the fire,” Primov said.

Messages poured in from around the world expressing anger, shock and support for the victims and their families.

On Friday, the United Nations Security Council condemned the attack and stressed that those responsible must be held accountable. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack “in the strongest possible terms,” ​​his spokesman said.

The “Islamic State” lost most of its positions after Russia’s military operation in Syria and has long targeted Russia. In a statement carried by the group’s Amaq news agency, Islamic State’s Afghan affiliate said it attacked a large group of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk.

The group issued a new statement on Aamaq on Saturday, saying the attack was carried out by four men who used automatic rifles, pistols, knives and Molotov cocktails. The attackers allegedly fired into the crowd and killed some concertgoers with knives in an attack that was part of the Islamic State’s ongoing war with countries it claims to fight Islam.

October 2015, a bomb IS planted A Russian passenger plane was shot down over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, most of whom were Russian holidaymakers returning from Egypt.

The group operates primarily in Syria and Iraq but also operates in Afghanistan and Africa and has also been responsible for a number of attacks in Russia’s restive Caucasus region and elsewhere over the past few years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.

The group’s affiliate in Afghanistan is known as ISIS-K or IS-K, named after the Khorasan province, which covered much of Afghanistan, Iran and Central Asia in the Middle Ages.

The affiliate has thousands of militants and has launched multiple attacks in Afghanistan since the country was occupied by the Taliban in 2021, with whom they have very tense relations.

ISIS-K was behind the events of August 2021 Suicide bombing at Kabul airport During the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops, 13 U.S. troops and about 170 Afghans died. They also claimed responsibility for a bomb attack that killed 95 people during a commemorative march in Kerman, Iran, in January.

On March 7, just hours before the U.S. Embassy warned of an impending attack, Russia’s top security agency said it foiled an attack by the Islamic State group on a synagogue in Moscow and in Kalu, near the Russian capital. Several members of the group were killed in Canada. Days earlier, Russian authorities said six suspected Islamic State members had been killed in a shootout in Ingushetia, Russia’s Caucasus region.

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Associated Press writers Michael Balsamo in Washington and Colleen Long in Wilmington, Del., contributed to this report.